Clinics turn away women with ruptured breast implants

Monday, February 20, 2012

Some beauty clinics are starting to send women with ruptured PIP breast implants to NHS hospitals, saying that they cannot treat them as they do not have the expertise required.

BAAPS have sais that some clinics are willfully pleading ignorance to avoid the time and expense of having to deal with former clients who have PIP implants.

A report in the Daily Telegraph quotes Nigel Mercer, the former president of Baaps, as saying: "I've recently seen a number of patients with lumps in their armpits - in one woman's case, the surgeon directly admitted to her not having the skills to remove them."

He adds: "Either these clinics' practitioners aren't qualified plastic surgeons as is generally claimed on their websites, which is clearly alarming, or they don't want to bear the costs of caring for their own patients. Frankly, neither option should be acceptable to the women affected."

Fazel Fatah, the current president of Baaps, told the paper: "Although it may be ostensibly reassuring that untrained practitioners aren't just trying to "have a go" at complex procedures, these actions then beg the question: who are the surgeons performing the implant replacements and what training have they undergone?

"Otherwise, one may be pardoned for assuming that this initiative is purely a cost-containment exercise. The alternative doesn't bear thinking of."

The Department of Health have now said that women can have ruptured PIP implants completely removed on the NHS and the women who have unruptured ones could potentially also have them removed completely free of charge if the implanting clinic had gone bust or if they could not help. But the government will pursue clinics for costs.