On the 23rd December 2011, the French Government
recommended that women who had PIP breast implants have them removed due to the
fact that 75% of the implants manufactured were filled with not only
non-clinical grade but also unapproved silicone gel. Jean Claude Mas, the
founder of PIP, was then found guilty for aggravated fraud. Since then, the NHS
Medical Director Sir Bruce Keogh carried a review into PIP breast implants and
reported that the implants fortunately weren’t causing a higher risk of breast
cancer in its carriers. The Review of the Regulation of Cosmetic Interventions
asked for information from patients, Royal colleges etc. to answer a series of
questions with regard to PIP.
A 100 page report which offered great insight into the sector
was submitted by MYA and contained ways in which to improve standards. An
interim report was published on 31st December 2012 by the Review
Panel. Suggestions were made to improve the sector including advice that the UK
cosmetic surgery industry should gather more accurate and consistent data and
non-surgical practices should become more robust among others.
Many cosmetic surgery companies and private hospitals are
willing to find ways to improve their standards. Meetings have reportedly been
carried out in order to find a way to obtain transparency of data in hopes that
there will be a better understanding of what procedures take place in the UK
and what type of procedures there are. However, not all of the cosmetic surgery
companies are open to this idea of change and improvement within the industry.
These companies will incur less costs and will charge lower fees which
consequently means that the patients who opt for the cheaper options of
cosmetic surgery will be the ones least protected.
It is important that, in order to help people make informed
decisions, a cosmetic company is willing to show the necessary data to their
patients. MYA, a well-established cosmetic surgery company, share
their data with other organisations which is helping to produce collective
sector data. Despite the fact that, like many trustworthy cosmetic companies,
MYA has minimum insurance requirements for surgeons and a need for them to be
on the specialist register or benefit from the Grandfather clause, this is not
the case with all cosmetic companies. In hopes that the PIP incident never
occurs again, the government wants cosmetic surgery companies to remove and
replace PIP breast implants free of charge. A number of businesses are happy to
do this, however not every cosmetic surgery provider want to offer this to
their patients and these companies may be taken down as they oppose the health
of their patients.