BREAST IMPLANTS ARE PRIVATE MATTER.

I find it very difficult to have any sympathy for the legion of misguided women now caught up in the row over supposedly defective breast implants. Once again, the providers of private medicine have got it wrong and are now trying to dump their mistakes on the NHS but, this time, the NHS is arguing.

The fact is that the NHS is for the treatment and prevention of illness and debility, it is not a 'backstop' for private providers who make mistakes. In the past, when private services have failed, the NHS has often had no choice but to pick up the pieces and bear the costs of putting things right; now those in authority are, rightly, saying that enough is enough.

Anyone who voluntarily, and for their own vanity, chooses to have bits of their bodies 'augmented' does so at their own cost and risk; they should ensure that the provider has adequate safeguards in place, not to mention insurance arrangements, and should also consider making their own insurance arrangements against the possibility of problems arising. The providers of these services should certainly have those safeguards and insurance, and to be now complaining, as the Harley Group are, that putting their mistakes right would bankrupt them, is risible. Potential bankruptcy cannot be used as an excuse for avoiding their clear responsibilities any more than any other company is able to do so.

It is my understanding that the immediate provider of any goods or services is responsible for any problems that arise following a transaction. In this case, the responsibility for dealing with the consequences of the misguided surgery lies with those who provided the service, that is, the private medical practitioners and clinics involved. If they wish to then pursue others further up the chain, that is a matter for them; if they have appropriate insurance, they should draw on this. What they should not do is plead impoverishment.

Private clinics and the doctors working in them have been making a very nice living from their exploitation of many very silly and vain people, mostly women. It's now time for them to return some of their substantial income and put things right for those who have been short-changed in their dealings, immediately and without argument, and in exactly the same way as any other businesses are required to do.