TikTok and the government have partnered with medical influencers - like Midwife Marley and Doc Tally - to create content to show the risks, help carry out thorough research and provide advice on how to make trips as safe as possible.
The Foreign Office will also provide more detailed travel advice for those seeking to travel abroad for "tweakments".
The online campaign warns that when it comes to cosmetic surgery abroad, the lowest price can come at the highest cost. It urges people to think beyond the slick brochures and marketing, and to consider clinical standards, complication risks, and language barriers.
It will urge potential patients to speak to a UK doctor, take out travel insurance, and avoid package holidays that bundle in procedures. The medics will provide a checklist to go through before considering booking a procedure abroad: research thoroughly, check the clinic's regulations and the surgeon's credentials, know the full cost, understand the aftercare, and ask the vital question - if it goes wrong, who will fix it?
Health minister, Karin Smyth, said: ‘Too many people are being left with life-altering injuries after going abroad for medical procedures, without access to proper advice or safeguards.
‘Often drawn in by deals too good to be true and promoted by influencers – some of whom have never been to the practice in question.
‘By partnering with TikTok, we're helping people make safer, more informed choices before they go under the knife – wherever that may be.'
Ali Law, TikTok's director of public policy, Northern Europe, said: ‘We are committed to providing our community with information from trusted sources when searching for topics related to physical and mental health.
‘We're pleased to work with the government on this new initiative to improve the safety of people going abroad for treatment and we will continue to promote credible content through our Clinician Creator Council made of NHS practitioners.'
The online campaign is part of wider government efforts to curb medical tourism. Work is underway to stop events in the UK that promote procedures abroad and the government is working with other countries to improve patient care from initial consultations to post-surgery recovery.
The government is also looking at additional ways of protecting patients who go abroad for these types of procedures, while ensuring the NHS is not left to pick up the tab of botched or harmful work.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development office has also updated its online travel advice advising people on how to stay safe when traveling abroad for medical or cosmetic reasons.
The Government last week unveiled a crack down on dodgy cosmetic practitioners in England. The regulations will mean the highest risk procedures, such as non-surgical Brazilian Butt Lifts, can only be carried out by qualified, specialised healthcare professionals, registered with the CQC. The measures also include developing a licensing scheme for lower risk procedures like Botox and fillers, alongside introducing minimum age restrictions.
