It might sound like an unusual concept, but medical tourism is growing in popularity. People are combining their holidays with surgical measures, going abroad for private treatment that they can’t get at home, or can’t get at the same price.

It’s been going on for a long time, with Eastern European dentists and plastic surgeons attracting citizens from the UK, China and Thailand attracting patients from Singapore, and residents of many other countries heading abroad to get their medical procedures done at a much lower price.

Many procedures, including cosmetic treatments, aren’t covered by national health plans or private insurance, but can be done abroad at a fraction of the cost that patients would pay locally. This means that procedures like tummy tucks, face lifts and breast implants are now available to many more people, as long as they want to travel. There are, however, safety concerns about medical tourism.

That’s because it can be difficult to tell if the doctor or facility in another country has the qualifications of your local practitioner. Standards in other countries are often different, too. This means that if you’re looking for a medical holiday, you’ll want to lots of checking up to make sure you’ll be treated in the best facilities you can get.

As medical tourism grows in popularity, with more and more doctors looking for foreign business, safety and quality might be a bigger concern. If you’re thinking about having medical procedures done in another country, it’s important to make certain the doctors are properly registered with that country’s medical regulatory bodies, and that you’re willing to ask pertinent questions.

There are other concerns, too, that have nothing to do with the competence of the surgeon or how up to date the facilities are. Travel is stressful, and it’s unwise to get on a plane immediately after a major procedure. It’s also hard to get good post-operative care when your surgeon is hundreds or thousands of miles away.

Because of this, many people interested in medical tourism decide to turn their visits into a holiday. If you stay a week or so after you come out of the hospital, your body will be given time to recover and the chances of travel complications will go down significantly.

One reason that medical tourism has so much appeal is that public health systems are often running at capacity, making non urgent care take a long time. Care in other countries can be much faster and more convenient - UK and Canadian patients who would have to wait up to a year for hip replacement could have an operation the next day in India, the Philippines, Cuba or Hong Kong.

Depending on the circumstances, you might want to take advantage of the opportunity to use your next holiday for medical tourism. Just be sure to do your homework and allow plenty of time for your body to recover from the procedure.