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This article was published on January 5th, 2017
A woman who is unable to close her eyes after cosmetic eye surgery went wrong, has received a letter from the cosmetic clinic’s solicitors to advise her not to contact anyone including her MP and talk about her experience.
The woman received the cosmetic eye surgery back in 2012 and as a result is now unable to fully close her eyes and has to apply drops every two hours and also has to add an ointment at night and tape one eye shut to prevent damage to her eyesight, which she believes is already deteriorating. She received the letter from a solicitors advising her not to speak openly about her complaints and she then contacted her MP about it. On hearing about the letter, her MP was angry that she had been warned to stop discussing her experiences and raised the issue in parliament in the House of Commons:
“A fundamental part of our parliamentary democracy is the right of our constituents to raise concerns with their Members of Parliament. My constituent …….. has raised with me the terrible treatment she received from the ………. following cosmetic surgery. I have raised her case on a number of occasions with Ministers, including on the Floor of the House.”
“Last week, ……. and ……….., a constituent of the Member for Ipswich, received solicitors’ letters from ……. solicitors on behalf of the Hospital Group threatening them with legal action if they discuss their cases with a third party – in other words, including with their Members of Parliament.”
The Speaker of the House said: “Any attempt to impede an honourable member going about his or her parliamentary business is potentially a contempt, and in such circumstances I would ask the honourable member to write to me about this matter in the first instance.”
The situation will add fuel to the fire as the government continues its aim to increase regulation of the cosmetic surgery industry and provide better protection for cosmetic surgery patients when the operation go wrong. There has been complaints about the aggressive advertising campaigns to tempt people by using celebrities who claim surgery has made them more popular and therefore happier or there has been marketing campaigns where there is pressure to make a decision within a time frame to get the best prices or even three surgeries for the price of two!
The government hopes to stamp out rogue clinics that offer poor quality cosmetic procedures by working with the Quality Care Commission to identify and name consistently poor cosmetic clinics to make the public aware of their track record and hopefully stamp out poor practice.
The health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, said: “Anyone who chooses to have a cosmetic procedure should have high quality and safe care – and that’s why we have a tough regulator in place to help people make an informed decision,”
“Our proposals to extend the CQC’s powers to rate more providers are an important step forward in improving standards and will help to end the lottery of poor practice in parts of the cosmetic industry.”
If you have been unfortunate enough to have experienced poor care from a private clinic or NHS surgery then contact us now at Thorneycroft Solicitors today for a free no-obligation assessment of your case on 0800 1979 345 or complete our online enquiry form.
Our medical negligence solicitors are dedicated to maximising the compensation for medical negligence available on a no win – no fee basis.
