Health and Social Care

Ann Clwyd Excerpts

Tuesday 2nd June 2015 Commons Chamber

[Ann Clwyd (Cynon Valley) (Lab)]

As I, too, come from the Vale of Clwyd, I welcome the hon. Member for Vale of Clwyd (James Davies). I am only sorry that he had to depose Chris Ruane, who was a colleague of mine, and I am sorry for the reasons that he was deposed, but I welcome the hon. Gentleman nevertheless. I fought that constituency myself in 1970, when there was a 25,000 Conservative majority, which is now much decreased but, of course, the boundaries have changed.

I shall speak today specifically about one aspect of health—the regulation of cosmetic surgery. Some 20 years ago I got a letter from a constituent of mine who had had a double mastectomy. That was because of silicone implants which had erupted inside her body. As a result of that we set up an organisation called SOS—Survivors of Silicone. If more attention had been paid to some of our findings at that time, we might not have had the PIP scandal which followed all too quickly.

I introduced a ten-minute rule Bill on the regulation of cosmetic surgery in 1994 and again in 2012, which shows that one must be persistent in this place. The Bill generated huge publicity and loads of letters. Unfortunately, despite calls from a wide range of organisations, not enough has changed since the mid-1990s. As a result, thousands of women, and men now, have continued to face the horrific consequences of unregulated cosmetic surgery.

I had a letter the other day from somebody who wrote:

“I think the operating table was a dental chair”,

describing her experience of liposculpture in a London clinic. She continued:

“They asked me to turn over onto my stomach, but the chair was the wrong shape and it was very difficult. At some stage during the operation I woke up. I was in tremendous pain and began screaming. They were still taking fat from my legs. The doctor told me afterwards that he had to continue with me awake or my legs would have been uneven.”

It turned out subsequently that the so-called cosmetic surgeon was a general practitioner. He had performed a surgical operation without any surgical training and had administered a general anaesthetic without an anaesthetist.

I read recently about a writer who has been left with blurred vision from botched laser eye surgery at a private clinic. After a five-year battle she has finally received £250,000 compensation, but has permanent scarring of her eyes. Such incidents are, sadly, only too common. The pressure on women and now also on men is considerable. Most of us want to change something about ourselves. Huge pressure is put on women in particular to change their looks. Private sector clinics offer a multitude of cosmetic procedures to achieve the perfect shape and a wrinkle-free face. “Too old, too thin, too fat, never just right”—that is the message. Cosmetic surgery, including breast implants, continues to be a growing industry.

In 2014 members of the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons conducted over 45,000 surgical procedures. Between 2002 and 2011 the number of boob jobs rose by 324%. Facelifts, tummy tucks and nose jobs are still popular. Plastic surgeons also operated on over 4,000 men, with nose jobs and man-boob jobs the most popular procedures. Many people face exploitation by private sector clinics and even cowboy surgeons if they are unable to receive treatment through the NHS. Most of the botched surgery or mistakes are then rectified by the NHS, as we have seen with the removal of PIP implants.

“In no other area of medicine is there such an unregulated mess. Imagine a ‘2-for-l’ advert for general surgery”,

as appeared in the paper recently.

“That way lies madness,”

said a former president of the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons. In one newspaper recently there was a piece headed “Plastic surgeons offer ‘buy one get one free’ deals on breast enlargements” and other jobs.

The Royal College of Surgeons has issued a statement criticising the Government for not including greater regulation in the Queen’s speech. The RCS said:

“We were disappointed that the Government chose not to introduce legislation to reform the regulation of health professionals.”

The RCS had called for the General Medical Council to be given a new power to tell the public and employers which surgeons are qualified to undertake cosmetic surgery. At present the law allows any doctor, including non-surgeons, to perform cosmetic surgery without undertaking additional training or qualifications.

The BAAPS has said something similar:

“It was very disappointing to see that yet again the government have shied away from regulation in the cosmetic surgery industry.”

One former president of the Royal College of Surgeons says that animals are better protected in Britain than people are. That is an absolute disgrace. I will not be here in 20 years’ time—[Hon. Members: “Yes, you will!”]—but I will continue to push for the Government to introduce legislation to protect this potentially vulnerable group of patients. It is high time we had action.