New figures show almost 1,000 women have already had faulty PIP implants removed by the NHS

The latest data from the Department of Health (DoH) shows that almost 1,000 patients who received faulty implants from French company Poly Implant Prothese (PIP) have been privately referred to the NHS to have them removed since January, with the NHS footing the bill.

 

607 women who had operations with private doctors have now decided to have their implants removed via the NHS, with 384 of these having already had the surgery. Another 378 women who had the implants put in by the NHS have also decided to have them removed, with 275 operations already taking place.

The cost to the NHS for appointments and scans that have already taken place is over £850,000. This will rise significantly when all 607 patients have had their surgery and could rise further as more women come forward.

In total over 7,000 individuals have approached the NHS with over 5,000 already having appointments and scans to establish if any rupture of the implants has taken place.

Who should foot the bill?

There have been arguments over who should pay for the removal or replacement of faulty implants. In January 2012 the Government announced that women given PIP breast implants on the NHS could have them removed for free, they expected private firms to offer the same.

Unfortunately it then emerged that many private clinics had disappeared and others refused. This led to the announcements that any women refused help would have access to NHS care but only for removal of implants, not replacement. In Wales the Welsh Government has gone further and agreed to replace as well as remove implants where the clinics will not assist.

Read the full release here.

Government’s final report on the safety of PIP implants released

The final Government report has concluded that the gel within PIP breast implants is not toxic or carcinogenic and is not a long term health risk to women despite the gel used being industrial based silicone.

The report has found that PIP breast implants have double the rupture rate of other implants. It is believed that around 47,000 women in the UK were fitted with PIP breast implants.

Mark Harvey of Hugh James Solicitors is representing nearly 1,000 women with PIP breast implants and has been appointed by the Court as the lead solicitor in the PIP Group Litigation. He has welcomed this new announcement, but warned that his clients will expect further tests to be undertaken on these implants:

“We welcome today’s announcements and it will be some relief to our clients that have been affected by this scandal. We also agree wholeheartedly with the recognition in the report that anxiety over possible health effects is in itself a form of health risk, something that we see on a daily basis in our own clients."

 

Read the full news release here.

PIP breast implants Medical Device Alert

On 15 March 2012, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) issued a new Medical Device Alert for PIP breast implants manufactured before January 2001.

The PIP breast implants manufactured after January 2001 by Poly Implant Prothèse are already the subject of a Medical Device Alert issued in October 2010, amidst concerns of increased rupture rates and the use of an unapproved, industrial grade silicone gel.

 

The French authorities have provided new information to the MHRA which suggests that no guarantees canbe made that PIP breast implants manufactured prior to January 2001 are filled with approved, medical grade silicone.

It is estimated that a further 7,000 women may have been fitted with PIP breast implants prior to January 2001, in addition to the 40,000 who are believed to have already been affected.

Mark Harvey of Hugh James represents more than 1,000 PIP patients and has been appointed as lead solicitor by the High Court. Mark says “This will be very disappointing for the women involved. We are not surprised given that PIP were facing compensation claims through much of the late 1990s but together with the recent scandal of the metal on metal hip prostheses it does of course simply reinforce our previously stated concerns of just how ineffective the regulation of these products has been.

We call for a public enquiry into the whole way in which medical devices and products are regulated in the UK and across Europe."

Read the full news release here.