PIP Implants the True Story

On the 23^rd 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 31^st 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.