Nuviya
    Safety

    Where your surgery happens, and how it's regulated

    Brazil has its own system for regulating and accrediting hospitals, and it is not a lesser version of anyone else's. Here is how it works, what the standards actually mean, and how to check the facility you'd be operated in — before you commit to anything.

    Where you'll be cared for

    How Brazilian hospitals are accredited — and how to check yours

    Brazil's national hospital accreditation body is the Organização Nacional de Acreditação — the National Accreditation Organisation, or ONA. It was founded in 1999 and runs the Brazilian Accreditation System. Its methodology is certified by the International Society for Quality in Health Care, a World Health Organization partner body with members from academic institutions and health organisations in more than 100 countries. ISQua is the same organisation that validates accreditation schemes internationally — so an ONA accreditation is assessed against a standard recognised well beyond Brazil.

    It is also worth knowing what ONA accreditation is not. It is not a government inspection a hospital has to pass. It is voluntary and confidential — a standard a hospital chooses to be measured against, and pays to be independently audited on, every few years. That makes it a signal of intent as much as of capability.

    The ONA three-level system

    Level 1: Acreditado (Accredited)

    The facility meets the baseline standards for care quality and patient safety, demonstrating compliance with 70% or more of ONA's standards across every area of activity.

    Level 2: Acreditado Pleno (Fully Accredited)

    Management is integrated across departments and the facility is working to a documented improvement plan, rather than simply holding the baseline.

    Level 3: Acreditado com Excelência (Accredited with Excellence)

    The highest level. The facility measures its own results against defined indicators and runs continuous, proactive cycles of process improvement.

    The regulatory floor

    Beneath accreditation there is a floor that applies to every facility, whether it has chosen to be accredited or not. Registration is a legal requirement rather than a mark of excellence — but it does mean every hospital we work with is identifiable in a government register you can search.

    ANVISA

    The Agência Nacional de Vigilância Sanitária is Brazil's national health regulator. Every health service in the country operates under it.

    CNES register

    The public national register of health establishments. Every facility must be registered on it, and you can search it yourself.

    Traceability and implants

    This is the part most patients never get told, and it is the part worth knowing.

    Breast implants sold in Brazil must be registered with ANVISA and must meet the international standard ISO 14607. Imported silicone implants additionally require compulsory certification through Brazil's conformity assessment system, administered by Inmetro — a regime tightened deliberately after the PIP and Rofil scandals, in which implants made with unapproved silicone reached patients in several countries.

    More usefully for you: Brazilian law requires the manufacturer to supply traceability labels with every implant, carrying the serial number and the ANVISA registration number. At least three are provided — one for your clinical record, one for the billing documentation, and one that goes to you. ANVISA is explicit that this is a patient right, not a courtesy.

    So you should leave Brazil knowing exactly what was implanted: brand, model, lot, serial number and registration number. If a specific brand or batch is ever suspended — and ANVISA does suspend them, and publishes the alerts — you can check your own label against it rather than wondering.

    Your label, your record
    What Nuviya does

    We name the hospital before you commit

    We tell you the name of the hospital your surgeon operates in before you commit to anything, along with what accreditation it holds. You can look it up yourself — the hospital's own website, its CNES registration, its accreditation. We would rather you checked than took our word for it. On the destination pages we publish every hospital our surgeons operate in, with photographs, addresses and their own websites.

    Explore by city

    Rio de JaneiroHospitals our Rio surgeons operate inSão PauloHospitals our São Paulo surgeons operate in

    Inside the hospitals

    Every hospital and licensed surgical facility where the surgeons who accept international patients operate.

    Being straight with you

    The real risks, and what we do about them

    Five things that can go wrong when you travel for surgery, and the specific thing Nuviya does about each one.

    01

    Cosmetic surgery carries real risk, wherever it is performed

    Every operation carries the possibility of bleeding, infection, poor wound healing, an anaesthetic complication or a result you are not happy with. Travelling does not create those risks and staying in Australia does not remove them.

    What Nuviya does

    What changes the odds is surgeon selection, the facility, an unhurried pre-operative consultation and honest expectations. Every surgeon we match you with is independently credential-verified before they ever appear in a match.

    02

    You are a long way from your surgeon once you return

    The weeks after you fly home are exactly when questions arise, and your operating surgeon is on the other side of the world in a different time zone.

    What Nuviya does

    Your surgeon reviews you in Brazil until you are cleared to fly, you keep a direct English-language line to them afterwards, and we schedule a post-return GP review in Australia so someone lays eyes on you at home.

    03

    Flight timing and blood clot risk

    A 15-plus hour flight raises the risk of a blood clot while you are still healing, and the bigger the procedure, the longer the window before flying is safe.

    What Nuviya does

    Recovery stays are planned around the procedure rather than the cheapest fare, returns are booked flexibly, and your surgeon clears you to fly and gives you an in-flight protocol.

    04

    Continuity of care

    Care split across two countries can fall between the cracks — notes that never arrive, no one holding the whole picture.

    What Nuviya does

    Nuviya holds the thread end to end: pre-departure clearances in Australia, an English-speaking concierge on the ground, and your documentation and tasks in one place so your Australian GP is not working blind.

    05

    The cost of a complication

    A complication overseas can mean an extended stay, additional treatment and changed flights — the part of the budget people never plan for.

    What Nuviya does

    Complimentary medical-travel cover, paid for by Nuviya, is included with every Nuviya surgery, with complication and emergency medical benefits and 24/7 assistance.

    What the complimentary cover includesHow we verify surgeons

    Ask us the hard questions

    A patient advisor will answer them plainly, before you commit to anything.

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