PIP breast implants: Regulatory system "dangerously flawed" - expert
A woman undergoes a procedure to remove leaking PIP implants
Rex Features
A French court has ordered a German company to pay compensation to hundreds of women who were fitted with PIP breast implants containing poisonous industrial silicone. The judge ruled, TUV Rheinland, which awarded EU safety certificates to the French implant manufacturer PIP, "neglected its duties of vigilance". VoR’s Tim Ecott spoke to solicitor Patrick Maguire.
The company PIP was shut down in March 2010 after an international health scare, following the rupture of many implants.
Patrick Maguire is a partner with Thompson Solicitors in Edinburgh, who represents many of the Scottish women affected as well as the PIP Scotland group who are calling for a full public enquiry.
He said: “The number of victims in the UK run to tens of thousands. In Scotland alone there are several hundred victims whom I represent.
“The total bill for PIP under various companies involved will be extremely large. Because each individual in their own right has a completely correct entitlement to just recompense and each claim will run into thousands of pounds.
“There are many women who still have the PIP implants inside their body simply because they don’t feel that they have the level of support that they need from the NHS. There are women, who therefore believe they are ticking time bombs, so the levels of fear and concern as you can imagine are incredible.”
Maguire says that this is one of the biggest medical negligence cases he has ever come across, and it is indicative of a much broader issue.
"There have been far too many medical products failing. It shows that the entire regulatory system is flawed. It's dangerously flawed."
(Voice of Russia)
