Harley Medical Group won't replace PIP implants for free

By Charlotte Beugge

Thousands of women have been left in limbo after Harley Medical Group, which fitted the most PIP implants in the UK, said it will not remove them from its former patients for free.

Around 40,000 women in the UK have PIP implants, of which 13,900 were done through Harley Medical Group. The government has said that private clinics have a "moral duty" to remove the implants.

There are concerns that the implants, which contain industrial rather than medical grade silicon, could rupture. The NHS will pay to remove - but not replace - implants if the private clinic refuses to or no longer exists.

But Harley Medical Group's chairman Mel Braham told the BBC the company had neither the resources, the surgeons, nor the operating facilities needed to do the surgery and that the government has a "moral responsibility" for paying for removal.

He told the broadcaster that the implants have been approved by the government's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), and it "has approved these implants and obviously hasn't done their proper checking, adding "we're an innocent victim like everyone else, we're attempting to do our best for our patients".

The health secretary Andrew Lansley said that it would not be fair for taxpayers to have to pay for treatments completed by the private sector.