Facelifts, liposuction, and breast operations cost public hospitals €4.25m in 2024

Darragh Mc Donagh

More than €4.25 million was spent on liposuction, facelifts, breast augmentation and other plastic or cosmetic procedures in public hospitals during 2024, representing an increase of almost 17 per cent from the previous year.

A total of 744 went under the knife in state-funded hospitals during the 12 months for surgeries including browlifts, nose jobs and breast reductions – 79 more than during 2023.

Liposuction procedures, in which excess fat is suctioned from targeted areas like the abdomen or buttocks, were performed on 85 patients in 2024 at a total cost of €831,864.

The procedure was previously described on the Health Service Executive (HSE) website as “a cosmetic procedure carried out to improve a person’s appearance, rather than their health”.

Some 37 patients underwent facelift and browlift surgery in public hospitals during the same period at a cost of €207,518 – almost double the amount that was spent on the procedures in 2023.

A facelift is a procedure that tightens sagging facial skin and underlying tissues, reducing wrinkles, jowls and loose neck skin, typically resulting in a more youthful appearance.

A total of 57 patients underwent breast augmentation procedures in 2024, costing €309,115, while 70 others underwent application, removal or insertion breast procedures at a cost of €250,486.

Breast reduction surgery was carried out on 229 women at a cost of almost €2 million.

Some 37 patients underwent ear repair in public hospitals at a cost of €320,007, while 37 had rhinoplasty costing €207,518. Eyelid excision for 119 people cost a total of €208,078.

The HSE has said it is not possible to calculate what portion of the total cost was funded by the taxpayer, by private health insurers, or by other means. The figures, released by the HSE under freedom of information laws, relate to both public and private patients.

“Procedures paid for by the HSE for public patients relate to plastic, rather than ‘cosmetic’ surgery,” it said.

“In the case of public patients, procedures of this nature are carried out only for clinical, and not cosmetic, reasons, and based on a clinical diagnosis by a medical consultant.

“Plastic surgery is aimed at correcting disfigurement or restoring lost functioning as the result of accidents, birth defects, or treatment of disease,” added the HSE.