Most medical-tourism cases produce no emergency. A small fraction do. The patients in the small fraction who fared best are usually the patients whose emergency contact plan was drafted before they left home, kept with them throughout the trip, and shared with their family and home-country doctor. This guide is the template.
Why a written plan, before departure
The decisions in a post-operative emergency are time-critical and require facts the patient cannot easily look up while they are unwell: regulator phone numbers, embassy contacts, the named surgeon's emergency line, the receiving hospital's address, the home-country doctor's preferred handover format. A patient who is alone, post-operative, in a foreign country, in pain or confused, will not produce these from memory. A written plan, kept in printed form and on the patient's phone, will.
The plan structure
### Section 1 — Identity and basics
- Full legal name, date of birth, nationality, passport number - Home address, home country - Allergies (food, drug, latex, contrast) - Chronic conditions - Medications taken regularly (with doses) - Blood type, if known - Religious or cultural care preferences relevant to clinical decisions - Organ donor status
### Section 2 — Clinical contacts
**The clinic that performed the surgery:** - Clinic name, full address, regulator and licence number - 24-hour clinical line (number, language) - Named surgeon — phone, email, registration number, register URL - Named anaesthetist (if known) - Discharging clinician (after discharge)
**The recovery house (if applicable):** - Name, address, clinical lead, 24-hour number
**The receiving hospital for emergency transfer:** - Name, address, emergency-department phone - Transfer arrangement: ambulance, taxi, taxi-with-companion - Estimated transfer time
**Home-country contacts:** - General practitioner — phone, email, written briefing of trip purpose - Specialist — phone, email, briefing - Local hospital emergency department phone
### Section 3 — Insurance contacts
- Travel insurance — policy number, 24-hour assistance line, claim email - Medical-tourism insurance (if separate) — policy number, 24-hour line - Home country health insurance — policy number, line for coverage questions - Credit card concierge line (if eligible for medical assistance)
### Section 4 — Non-clinical contacts
- Embassy of the patient's country in the clinic country — emergency line, address, hours - Hotel or recovery house front desk - Two family members at home — phone, email, relationship, who has authority to act on the patient's behalf if needed - Workplace contact for sickness reporting - Trusted friend in the clinic country (if any)
### Section 5 — Documents
The following should be carried in physical form and on the patient's phone: - Passport copy - Visa copy - Travel insurance certificate - Pre-operative medical clearance letter from home-country doctor - Allergy and current medication list (in English and the local language) - Consent form (after the clinic provides it) - Operation report, anaesthesia chart, discharge summary, implant passport (after discharge) - Implant passport (in original)
### Section 6 — Authority
A short written statement signed by the patient before departure: - Authority for a named family member or friend to make decisions on the patient's behalf if the patient is incapable - Preferences regarding aggressive resuscitation, transfusion, organ donation - Consent for clinical teams to share information with the patient's home-country doctor and named family member
This is a lay version of an advance care directive. Where the patient has a formal advance directive in their home country, a copy should be carried.
### Section 7 — The "if I can't speak" page
A single printed page in the local language and the patient's language, headed "I am a medical tourist from [country] who has had [procedure] at [clinic] on [date]". Includes the named surgeon, the receiving hospital, the home-country doctor, allergies, current medication. This is the page the patient hands to a stranger if they cannot speak.
Distribution
The plan is held by:
- The patient (printed in hand luggage; PDF on phone; PDF in cloud) - The travel companion - A trusted family member at home - The patient's home-country GP - The hotel or recovery house front desk
Rehearsal
A short rehearsal before departure:
- Call the clinic's emergency line from home; confirm someone answers - Call the travel-insurance assistance line; confirm the policy is active - Confirm the embassy emergency line works - Walk the travel companion through the plan
After return
The plan is updated to include:
- The actual operation report, anaesthesia chart, implant passport, discharge summary - The home-country doctor's first follow-up appointment - Any complications or open issues - Any insurance claim numbers
It then becomes part of the patient's permanent medical record.
This guide is educational. It does not constitute medical or legal advice. Where formal advance care directives are appropriate, prepare them with qualified legal advice in the home jurisdiction before travel.