Mr. Damien Donoghue:

There are multiple factors to take into account, including how extensive the surgery is. In terms of my partner's journey, the surgery was quite extensive. There was bowel surgery and several elements of the body operated on. The idea that you can get on a plane a week later or two weeks later is just absurd. It is not one size fits all. It depends on how extensively the disease has progressed. The condition is so individualised and, therefore, the same goes for what extensive surgeries are required and for recovery, so it is not a one-size-fits-all. Imagine going further afield. Let us say other specialties may need to be involved, for example, colorectal surgeons may be involved in the process. You have all that multidisciplinary involvement in the centre you have gone to and then you come back with no aftercare. You are trying to piece it together yourself. As I said, I am not an advocate. I understand why people go abroad and, as I said, my own partner had to do that. The big concern for me is that when you come back and you have gone through such extensive surgery, you do not have the follow-up or that extra TLC when you come home. As a clinician, I think that is so risky, and then there is the extent of other unwanted conditions and extra complications coming into the equation such as bleeding. You then go to present to another hospital and are told the hospital does not know what happened here; that the person was further afield. You hear that from other people's journeys abroad. Travel abroad creates other risks that do not need to be there.