The NHS is footing the bill for facelifts, nose jobs, liposuction and breast augmentation when other patients are being denied life-saving cancer drugs on the grounds of cost.The number of facelifts and operations to increase breast size has more than doubled over the past decade, while there has been a 40 per cent rise in liposuction, the Daily Mail reported.
In 2012-13, the NHS found the money to carry out 1,137 facelifts – costing taxpayers up to £8.5 million.
Up to £52.5 million went on breast enlargements and a record £10 million was spent on liposuction.
Every week there are 164 nose jobs, 37 liposuction procedures, 22 facelifts and 273 breast reshaping operations being carried out by the NHS.
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said recently that the NHS should only fund cosmetic surgery when there is a clear clinical need and if someone’s physical and mental health could be at risk without it. It is unclear, from the figures supplied by the Health and Social Care Information Centre, what proportion of the procedures met these criteria. The data do not distinguish between procedures carried out for cosmetic and non-cosmetic reasons.
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