Is it worth paying for a second opinion at home before I book a joint replacement in Bangkok?

#1Margaret F(Joined Mar 2026 · 17 posts)June 3, 2026, 9:14 am

Following on from my earlier questions, I now have one itemised quote I trust and a surgery date pencilled in for October. My knee has been assessed at home, I was told a replacement is what I need, and then given a wait that runs well into next year, which is the whole reason I started looking at Thailand.

Here is the thing nagging at me. My assessment at home was over a year ago now. Somebody suggested I pay for a private consultation here before I fly, just to have a fresh set of eyes and up to date imaging, and my first reaction was that it is another few hundred pounds on a trip that is already the biggest cheque I have ever written. Did anyone here do that? Was it useful or was it money spent on reassurance?

#2Alan G(Joined Jun 2024 · 34 posts)June 4, 2026, 7:52 am

I did, though not deliberately. My shoulder was assessed privately at home first because I had gone down the private route before I found out what it cost, so by the time I was looking abroad I had a recent report and recent scans in my hand.

What I did not expect was how much easier that made the conversation with the hospital in Bangkok. I was not a stranger describing my symptoms over a video call, I was somebody sending over an actual report and images. Their surgeon came back with a plan that matched what I had been told at home, which told me two useful things at once: that his judgement lined up with an independent one, and that he had actually read what I sent.

If your imaging is a year old, I would get it redone whatever you decide about the opinion. Knees change.

#3petem1970(Joined Aug 2025 · 16 posts)June 5, 2026, 6:31 pm

Different scale of thing entirely with dental, but I had a check up at home first and it saved me an argument later. Having a record of what your situation was before anybody operated is worth having.

#4Dr Helen WardMedical moderator(Joined Mar 2024 · 82 posts)June 7, 2026, 10:05 am

Margaret F said:

My assessment at home was over a year ago now.

Taking the general point rather than your knee specifically, since I have not seen it: a recent, independent assessment is one of the more useful things you can carry into a medical travel decision, and current imaging is the part I would prioritise if you were only paying for one of the two.

Three reasons. First, an operating surgeon is planning around your anatomy as it is now, and for a joint that has been deteriorating for a year, a scan from last spring is describing a joint that no longer exists. Second, an opinion from someone with no financial interest in whether you have the operation is a genuinely different piece of information from an opinion given by the people quoting you for it, and where the two agree you can proceed with more confidence. Third, it gives whoever looks after you afterwards a documented baseline, which matters if there is ever a question about how things changed.

Where a second opinion is worth less is when it simply repeats a recent assessment you already hold in writing. If your imaging is current and the plan is unambiguous, you are paying for reassurance, which is not nothing but is not new information either. The things worth asking of any surgeon, at home or abroad, are set out in knee and hip replacement in Thailand. Whether your own knee needs re-imaging before October is a question for a clinician who can examine it, not for me at this distance.

#5Lorna McK(Joined May 2026 · 14 posts)June 10, 2026, 8:47 pm

I would add one unglamorous benefit. When I was arranging things at home for after my trip, the first question I was asked was who assessed me and where the notes were. Having a recent report from a clinician in this country made every one of those conversations shorter. Nobody wants to be the person picking up the aftercare with nothing but a hospital discharge letter from another continent.

#6Margaret F(Joined Mar 2026 · 17 posts)June 27, 2026, 3:22 pm

Booked the private consultation and had the knee scanned again. The opinion was the same as before, so in one sense I paid for nothing, except the images were noticeably worse than the old ones and the surgeon here said so plainly.

I have sent the new scans to Bangkok. Their surgeon came back within two days with a note about the implant he would plan for, which is more detail than I had before. So: same answer, better questions. Worth it, I think, though ask me again in November.