to think that it's not for the nhs to pick up the bill to remove potentially faulty breast implants?

[wannaBe]

There are calls today for women who have had the faulty French breast implants to have them removed on the NHS. Apparently 40000 women have these implants, and to remove all of them would cost the NHS £150 million.

Now, if a woman has had these implants as part of reconstructive surgery following mastectomy then I agree that she should be able to have them removed. But other than that, if you choose to buy yourself bigger breasts (and let's be honest, leaking implants are not a new thing), then it isn't the nhs's responsibility to pick up the tab if there might be a problem.

If your life is in immediate danger then you would obviously need to have surgery on the NHS, but just on the off-chance? I think the company responsible should be the ones picking up the bill and don't see why the taxpayer should shoulder the responsibility for other peoples' vanity.

No, of course lung cancer patients shouldn't have to pay for treatment! The difference is that where breast implants were provided by a provided by a private sector company, that company must be obligated to provide the remedy.

With any plastic surgery comes risks, you accept those risks when you pay your 2.5k to have the surgery done, these women only went abroad to save money, the money they saved could have got them a pair of tits that were safe. My sister paid half abroad than it would have cost here for what a pair of tits that are essentually now defective, worse than that she took my 18 year old neice with her and she had hers done too.

Sorry they had breast augmentation for vanity, the NHS should not pay for the reversal either go back to where you had them done or sell your expensive car (Niece) or get a job (Sister on dole) and get them done yourself.

Thats awful Altinkum You should be entitled to have them replaced but will have to pay NHS rates unless you are exempt.

The NHS should not pick up the bill, the co will have had insurance so they should pay.

In the meantime if the NHS put them in after cancer surgery then they should check them and remove if needed but if purely done for cosmetic reasons privately then it should be down to the individual to pay as they would have paid again after x years as upkeep has always been needed.

The NHS pays for lots of things it shouldnt anyway without adding to it

absolutely mr bates--"that company must be obligated to provide the remedy"

Those who can pay should pay, simple, if it means a bank loan, selling a car, pawning your jewellery, you should have to pay it.

It should cost the NHS nothing, what at the cost of an old age pensioners life.

More sitting on trolleys for 12 hours before dying. Its damn disgraceful if the NHS foot the bill, disgraceful.

"No, of course lung cancer patients shouldn't have to pay for treatment! "
Unless they were smokers?

Complicated.

Perhaps cosmetic surgery recipients should be forced to get surgery insurance for possible complications, or surgeons should take adequate insurance for such incidents.

FabbyChic the NHS is meant to be for everyone regardless of income or ability to pay. If you start meanstesting it where do you draw the line?

Treatment is denied to many cancer patients on no other basis than cost. As someone struggling with cancer, I find myself lacking in any sympathy for people demanding NHS treatment for something that might happen.

I smoke cigarettes for every pack I buy the government gets £8.00 thats £56 a month I been smoking 30 odd years, I more than pay for my own cancer treatment thanks.

So stick that in your pipe and smoke it.

I pay tax on cigarettes where is the tax on these fucking boob jobs? Get real.

Totally agree FabbyChic.

There was some woman on the news griping about how she'd had implants, was now terrified, asked all her family for money at Xmas so she could have a MRI scan privately, but still didn't have enough, poor me, etc. This is plainly not what the NHS is intended for and it would be a travesty for all the elderly who are already receiving shoddy, piss-poor treatment because of "resourcing" if any NHS treatment is offered to these self-interested idiots.

YABVVVU, so let em die of septicemia then, nice! Where do you stop: smokers, the obese, drug users, alcoholics, binge drinkers, anyone basically who puts themselves at risk of harm, which is basically all of us.

The NHS is constantly drawing a line and saying 'we're not treating you'. Many of those decisions are very hard and painful. This one - which hasn't been made yet - whether or not to replace something which may or may not be harmful and was volutarily entered in to by the patient, in the knowledge that like all medical procedures risk was involved, is not for me one of those difficult decisions.

Wannbe quoted a cost of £150 million. I work in the NHS as an admin manager and one of the things I do is stock ordering. 150 million will buy 26, 548 673 dialysers - the artifical kidneys that allow dialysis to take place. You need one per session and the standard in this country is three sessions a week. So thats enough to pay for a years artifical kidneys for I think around 170, 000 people (please do correct my maths if needed!) The UK population on dialysis is much smaller than that so you've basically got enough there for this one item for at least 5 years.
What else - the slings we use in our hoist are around £180 for 10 so that's enough for over 8 million of those.
There's a dressing we use on people's needle sites that won't stop bleeding - over £8 a box. Treatment for plasma exchange - around £2500 for the course. A nursing sister - £30-40 grand. A consultant - say £110 grand.
This is a LOT of money. It can only be spent once. Don't kid yourselves its inexhaustible. I've seen over ten years working in the NHS how it can be exhausted and I am not prepared to agree that replacing breast implants is a worthwhile use. The company should pay. If the company cannot or will not pay then the patient pays. Caveat Emptor after all - it was a commercial transaction. Obviously if the NHS has put them in though the NHS will pay.

The government are introducing VAT increases on cosmetic surgery.

most throat,lung,oesophageal cancers are lifestyle related,smoking and alcohol. the nhs, gp,and pct still give free treatment regardless however the individual became unwell

the principle is free at point delivery to meet a need, and isn't means tested

individually, yes one has information and prompts that would encourage healthier lifestyle eg moderate alcohol, good diet, don't smoke. but nhs can't compel people to take this advice.

it's Too simplistic to think well brought this on yourself,you sort it.cough up for removal

I HAD TO PAY TO HAVE A LUMP REMOVED FROM MY BREAST 17 YEARS AGO IT COST £3,000.00 NOT OUT OF VANITY, BECAUSE IT WAS A LUMP, 2/3 MONTHS WAIT ON THE NHS FOR WHAT POTENTIALLY COULD HAVE BEEN BREAST CANCER. I paid for it was sorted within 10 days and gone.

I still have the scar.

If I had paid to have bigger tits or ones that did not sag, I would not drain the NHS and be a ponce, Id 2nd mortgage my home or get a bank loan.

If you could afford to get them done initially you can damn well pay for a reversal.

You cease to forget smoking and alcohol users pay taxes on what they buy to fuel their fancy, they pay taxes on the drink and the fags, they self support their own liver and cancer treatment.

A tit job is for vanity for the bedroom, nothing else, as you cover them up when you in the street. Or you have them done to get them out on your holiday in Ibiza.

If you are that shallow you need a tit job to get a decent life and you pay for it then fuck off and pay for it to be rectified.

This thread makes me so angry.

What about the fact they turn away obese patients because the are fat eh? Is that acceptable then so they can turn away more obese people so these vain selfish women can have their tits put back to normal!

agree with fabbychic, if can afford the implants, the nshould be able to afford, whether by working more, bank loan etc to take the mout, if yuo are worried about risk of rupture. the clinic whihc put them in will be legall yliable for using substandard goods, they may have a right of actiuon aginst the makers, but i do not think NHS should be used to take out non ruptured implants. If they rupture, then there is no choice but to offer treatement, but from what I READ, THE RISK OF RUPTURE IS RELATIVLEY LOW.

Who is going to suffer if the NHS does this, who?

I tell you the old and infirm and the obese.

Thats who.

Disgraceful.

The thing is, if a woman came into an NHS hospital with an infected implant in which she could die if she does not recieve treatment, than the NHS has a duty of care to treat that woman.

WannaBe

"I have issue with women who have plastic surgery because they continue to fuel a belief that we need to look a certain way/conform to certain standards etc"

Do you also have an issue with women who dye their hair or wear make up then? Surely they are also fueling the same beliefs? What about women who have breast reconstruction after cancer etc?

I have PIP implants. I am also breastfeeding my 6 month old baby. As things currently stand, I am happy to keep my current implants in and continue to BF my baby, something I would not do if I felt there was a risk to her. I have been scanned on the NHS recently, but due to recurrent mastitis, not my implants. However, they did confirm my implants are intact and not leaking.

I don't think the NHS should fund cosmetic surgery and I think that currently, whilst there is no proven cancer or health risk (in fact, all tests currently suggest no link to cancer) and no rupture that they should not fund removal or PIP implants. I think it is more of a grey area if a cancer link is proven or if women already have a rupture and cannot afford replacement or removal.

There are a lot of misconceptions flying around on this thread though, one is that removal and replacement of breast implants is routinely required. This is not the case any more, although obviously if you have implants in the first place you need to consider that things can go wrong or problems can occur and what you would do if that happens.