The UK’s largest independent provider of private health care has pledged to remove the banned PIP breast implants from concerned patients who received treatment at any of its 70 centres including Fernbrae Hospital in Dundee.
BMI Healthcare says its patients should not be left worrying about the real or perceived risk of the implants manufactured by the French company Poly Implant Prothese (PIP).
The group told The Courier that since the first Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency alert regarding PIP implants was raised in March 2010 it has removed ruptured implants from women, but refused to confirm if any of these cases involved patients at the Perth Road hospital.
A BMI Healthcare spokesman added: ”We have decided that all patients who paid BMI Healthcare for their PIP implant surgery who wish to have their PIP implants removed and replaced will be able to do so, at no cost.
”Whilst at some stage there will need to be a financial reckoning with those responsible for putting these implants into the UK market, BMI Healthcare believe patients with these implants should not be kept waiting whilst this is resolved.
”Our commitment to patient care remains our core priority.”
BMI Healthcare refused to comment on the number of breast enlargements its doctors had carried out using the PIP implants.
The Government has said that private clinics have a ”moral duty” to remove implants they fitted.
Breast augmentation remains the most popular form of cosmetic surgery in the UK, with medical reasons accounting for only 20% of procedures.
NHS Tayside said none of its patients will be affected by the issue after it confirmed that it had never used PIP implants.
However, it is thought that around 40,000 women in the UK have been fitted with the banned implants.
Photo by Guibbaud Christophe/Press Association Images