COSMETIC SURGERY clinics should be banned from advertising their operations, leading plastic surgeons have demanded.
The call follows the scandal over faulty breast implants given to more than 40,000 women in Britain and the subsequent row over who should foot the bill for their replacement.
Any ban would bring Britain in line with France, where advertising of cosmetic surgery is already outlawed, experts said.
The British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons [BAAPS], is urging ministers to impose the advertising ban. It also wants to see a number of other new controls put in place, including the medical licensing of derma fillers, which are injections used to reduce the signs of ageing, and a register for all implants.
Its recommendations are being sent to MPS on the health select committee and to Sir Bruce Keogh, the NHS medical director, who are both conducting inquiries into the implants scandal.
BAAPS has repeatedly warned against the “hardsell” techniques used by some of the biggest cosmetic surgery clinics. They include “divorce feel good” surgery for women who have left their husbands, cut-price operations in time for Christmas and even “boob jobs” offered as raffle prizes in nightclubs.
BAAPS claims a “cowboy” market has been allowed to flourish in the industry due to a lack of regulation and control. Fazel Fatah, a consultant plastic surgeon and the president of BAAPS, said: “Advertising in cosmetic surgery feeds into the worries and insecurities in a group of vulnerable people. These clinics have turned surgery into a commodity and that is wrong.”
An advertising ban would put cosmetic surgery in the same category as tobacco, the only product whose promotion in print and on television is outlawed. Alcohol and gambling advertisements are heavily regulated, while there are increasing restrictions on junk food commercials.
The spotlight has been turned on to cosmetic surgery clinics following the disclosure that silicone breast implants made by Poly Implants Protheses (PIP), a French company, were made from industrial grade silicone rather than medical grade.
The implants are susceptible to rupturing, causing the silicone to leak into the body.
Britain’s two biggest cosmetic surgery clinics — Transform and Harley Medical Group — are refusing to pay for the cost of the removal and replacement of implants despite the Government saying they had a moral duty to do so.
The clinics point out that the implants were approved for use by the Government’s official watchdog.
Sally Taber, the director of the Independent Healthcare Advisory Services, which represents some of the biggest cosmetic surgery clinics, said it backed tighter regulation, including a ban on certain promotions, but said a widespread ban risked “driving patients underground” or abroad.