PIP: In Germany, the certifier has concerns

 

INFO LE FIGARO - For the first time, the German agency that certified the PIP prostheses was concerned in his own country by an insurer. While PIP is insolvent, the complaint raise the track compensation for French victims.

 

Twist in the scandal of breast implants PIP . Reportedly, AOK, one of the most important mandatory health insurance in Germany (25 million members), assigned on 30 August, which TÜV certified the PIP prostheses. AOK Bavaria demanded 50,000 euros for reimbursement TÜV advanced by the fund during the operations of its insured to remove dentures cost. The oversight of the German Health advised to remove all PIP implants preventively. This is the first time the giant TÜV concern on German soil in the case of prostheses. In Germany, 10,000 women had received PIP implants.
TÜV is an institution in Germany. The Cologne-based company employs 16,000 people worldwide and is ultrarespectée in Germany where it is considered one of the pillars of German industry. TUV certification comes as in a multitude of areas: aerospace, marine, rail, power plants, civil engineering, elevators, conveyors, toys.
Since the beginning of the PIP affair, TÜV denies being missed PIP fraud, explaining that the company was responsible for monitoring the compliance of records and not the quality of the workmanship on site.

"A reason to hope for French and foreign victims"

However, in the complaint AOK which Le Figaro had access, the insurer considers substance TÜV has not sufficiently taken into account its duty of supervision. According AOK, TÜV has only made ​​unscheduled spot checks and announced in PIP. The prostheses were not controlled, only documents of PIP on the quality of management were. For AOK, this approach controls planned in advance proved insufficient. In addition, the complaint also points to the alerts that TUV would not have been significant. In 2000-2001, the American health authority (Food and Drug Administration) had conducted a surprise in local PIP inspection in France, which led her to establish a warning letter listing the structural abnormalities observed on the quality control of prostheses. Which led to the ban on PIP implants on the floor of the United States. For AOK, it is clear that after this event, TÜV should have made ​​at least regular checks, during which not only documents the quality would have been controlled but also the products themselves.
I Aumaître Olivier, lawyer foreign distributors of PIP implants, causing the seizure of accounts TÜV France last May, was the first in France to attack TÜV. The case was argued in March at the Commercial Court of Toulon. It was an action for liability company TÜV TÜV Germany and France have failed in their mission certifier, importers claiming 27 million euros TÜV. More than 2,000 French and foreign patients were transplanted to this procedure which is expected to deliberate on October 7. So that in criminal proceedings Marseille held in the spring , TÜV was on the bench for plaintiffs. "The complaint from the AOK reinforces the validity of our action against TÜV before the Commercial Court of Toulon, says Aumaître me. In public health, the control of implantable medical devices can not be variable geometry depending on the fortunes of the manufacturer. Moreover, it is clear that the complaint of the AOK gives patients, French and foreign victims, another reason to hope for compensation from TÜV. "
Asked by Le Figaro , counsel for TÜV France did not wish to comment.

http://www.lefigaro.fr/actualite-france/2013/09/17/01016-20130917ARTFIG00372-pip-en-allemagne-le-certificateur-a-des-soucis.php