PIP breast implant scandal: ‘Throw your faulty breast implants in bin’

SCOTTISH women affected by the PIP breast implant scandal have been told to “throw away” their removed implants rather than keep them as evidence, campaigners claim.

Jenny Brown, 41, from Edinburgh, who had her PIP implants removed by the NHS in Scotland last month, said she was concerned vital evidence was being destroyed after being told by the London-based Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Authority (MHRA) she should take them back to the NHS to be destroyed.

Campaigners are now calling for a testing programme to be set up by the NHS in Scotland.

More than 50,000 women in the UK, and some 4,000 in Scotland, may have received the faulty implants manufactured by the now-defunct French firm Poly Implant Prothese.

Malcolm Chisholm, Labour MSP for Edinburgh Northern and Leith, will today raise the issue of what happens to implants removed by the NHS in Scotland at the Scottish health committee meeting at the Scottish Parliament. Private cosmetic companies have been told to retain the implants.

Mrs Brown said: “When I got my implants removed by an NHS surgeon at the Western General in Edinburgh I asked him what would happen to them and he said they would be destroyed.

“I wasn’t happy about this and contacted the MHRA and asked them exactly what they were doing about testing PIP implants. I was told they had ‘got enough’ and that I should take them back to the NHS to get rid of them.”

Mrs Brown, a nurse, whose right implant ruptured allowing industrial-strength silicone to leak into her lymph nodes, said: “I think that’s utterly reckless and want to have mine analysed.”

Mrs Brown’s solicitor, Patrick McGuire of Thomsons Solicitors, has advised her to keep the implants as evidence and store them in a sealed container.

Last night, Mr McGuire, who is representing over 200 women in Scotland who had PIP implants, said: “The suggestion these implants should be chucked away is ludicrous. You have to question the motivation behind it.

“This is very important vital evidence which needs preserved. The design and types and amount of silicone in the implants may have changed over time and we need to retain as many as possible. They are evidence and there should be no recommendation to bin them.”

Mr Chisholm said he had written to the MHRA and that the main issue was to get the PIP implants tested.

“It would seem the NHS were just discarding them but at a recent Scottish Health Committee meeting representatives of private cosmetic surgery companies said they had been told to store the implants until given further instruction by the MHRA.”

An MHRA spokesman said: “The MHRA is carrying out further testing on PIP breast implants and have the number of explanted and unused implants we need to establish whether exposure to the unauthorised silicone poses a risk to women.”