Monday 23 January 2012

BAAPS

I would like to congratulate The British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons on their excellent choice of name and acronym.

However, I don't approve of the fact that they are calling for more regulation and a ban on advertising, as we know this is just a way in which existing players in an industry create barriers to entry, thus protecting their own profit margins at the expense of the consumer and of all those who are preventing from setting up in competition.

Just for completeness, here's an example of the advertising they'd like to ban, taken from here:

5 comments:

Bayard said...

Well at least there have actually been problems with dodgy implants. There was some pol on the radio the other day, calling for a ban on children being able to hold gun licences. He could come up with absolutely no evidence that there had ever been a problem with a child holding a gun licence, it was just that he was against the idea of children with guns.

Mark Wadsworth said...

B, but it was their members implanting them, who are now weeping that removing/replacing them is the taxpayers' problem. What they really hate is competition, i.e. from people who do Botox injections.

Anonymous said...

"In no other area of surgery would one encounter Christmas vouchers and 2-for-1 offers – the pendulum has swung too far, and it is time for change."

Not far enough until you can get 2-for-1 hip replacements for christmas I think.

By the way, are all these faulty breast-implants not covered by liability-insurance? I assume insurance is mandatory(I think that's a barrier to entry most free market proponents would agree to), and that premiums will reflect the track-record of surgeons, so won't this sort itself out?

-Kj

Mark Wadsworth said...

Kj, that's the point. BAAPS' members want the taxpayer to cough up instead of their insurers (or self-insurance). They want the best of both worlds. From The Daily Mail:

"The NHS will pay to remove breast implants at the centre of a global health scare.
For the 3,000 patients who had the PIP implants fitted on the NHS, anxiety about them will be enough to qualify for an operation to replace them with high-quality alternatives.

But last night Health Secretary Andrew Lansley also cleared the way for up to 47,000 private patients to have the PIP implants removed at taxpayers' expense – if there is a clinical need.

He said there was no evidence to recommend routine removal, but private clinics had a 'moral duty' to take them out, and if they would not, the NHS would step in.
The Government would then try to claw back the money from the clinics at a later date."

Bayard said...

"The Government would then try to claw back the money from the clinics at a later date."

What, when they've got all the money back they spent on dodgy bank shares, I suppose. Bring on the porcine Red Arrows.

OTOH, you can't blame the dodgy plastic surgeons for having a go. It's the idiot Lansley who's at fault for not telling them to piss off.