Cosmetic Surgery Company Offering Discounts for Multiple Operations
December 14, 2009
Telegraph.co.uk
By Robert Mendick
The Transform Cosmetic Surgery Group is advertising a £750 price reduction for patients who go ahead with ‘any two surgical procedures’ including liposuction and breast enlargements before 31 December.
Other special offers on Transform’s website include a prize draw for the chance to win a £500 ‘wow! party outfit’ for women agreeing to a consultation.
The discounted operations have been criticised as unethical by senior surgeons who accuse Transform of encouraging women to undergo combinations of procedures that could greatly increase the risk of complications.
Advertising guidelines drawn up by the private health care sector – and to which Transform is a signatory – ban deadlines on discounts for surgery as well as financial incentives to lure patients to consultations.
The rules are intended to give women breathing space before going in for plastic surgery. However, they are not legally enforceable.
Transform, which practises at more than 60 locations across the UK, appears to be exploiting the Christmas party season to drum up business. Under the heading ‘Prepare to dazzle’, its website declares: “For a limited time only, save on cosmetic surgery with £750 off any two surgical procedures, for example;
Breast enlargement and liposuction; Liposuction and tummy tuck; Face lift and brow lift.
“Let our experienced surgeons help transform you in time for the party season.”
Fazel Fatah, the president elect of the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS), criticised the offers.
“It is completely unethical to propose surgical procedures for patients enticed by these kinds of discounts,” she said. “By adding extra operations you potentially increase the risk of complications.
By placing a deadline, patients are being put under pressure to agree to an operation. That is highly unacceptable. Cosmetic surgery is no less serious than other surgery.”
Nigel Mercer, a former president of BAAPS, said it was evidence that cosmetic surgery companies could no longer be trusted to self-regulate. “The whole industry agrees it is not appropriate to give time sensitive cash incentives. It is ridiculous,” said Mr Mercer.
Good practice guidelines for cosmetic surgery published by the Independent Healthcare Advisory Service (IHAS), the membership group that represents the private health sector, state: “Advertisements must not offer discounts linked to a deadline date for booking appointments or surgery or other date-linked incentives.”
The guidelines also state: “Promotional events such as open evenings must not include financial incentives for potential patients to book a consultation appointment at the event.”
IHAS director Sally Taber initially told The Sunday Telegraph that the time-sensitive £750 discount was “not acceptable ethical practice” but later spoke to the newspaper again to say she had not realised the offer only appears on Transform’s website – and therefore did not constitute an advert under another set of IHAS guidelines issued in the summer.
Those guidelines allow promotions on IHAS members’ own websites on the basis that anybody looking at a cosmetic surgery site is already interested in having an operation. “We don’t restrict them on websites,” said Ms Taber.
Transform said patient safety is paramount and extra operations at discounts would only be performed after a thorough clinical assessment.
The company said in a statement: “Transform is committed to providing excellent clinical care for all patients and all our patients are assessed on an individual basis to ensure their safety is not compromised.
“We would never offer any products or services to our customers that, following consultation with our surgeons, we determine are not appropriate, this includes consideration of multiple procedures. All products are researched and our clinicians appropriately trained to safely administer the treatment to the patient.”
The company added: “The discount referred to does not contravene the guidance set by the IHAS which states ‘that a provider can offer promotions to customers who have already contacted the company via the company website’, nor has Transform at any time, been contacted by the IHAS with a request to remove or amend the discount.”
Transform enjoyed post tax profits of almost £5 million last year on turnover of £41 million and boasts of carrying out more than 700 operations a month.
But its parent company Covenant Healthcare Group, which was bought by a private equity group in 2005 for £170 million, is reported to be on the verge of sale having posted losses of £137.7 million in the year to September 2007.
According to Transform’s most recent accounts, Covenant Healthcare group owed its bank £89 million and in September 2008 was in breach of ‘certain of its banking covenants’.
Saif Khan, a cosmetic surgeon with Transform, said: “contrary to any implication that the bank is not supportive of Covenant Healthcare, the bank and the company are working in partnership to finalise a deal which GHG [General Health care Group] which will result in a complete financial restructuring of the group. In the interim the bank remains committed and has confidence in the continuing success story of Transform and the other Covenant companies.”
The cosmetic surgery industry has in the past been plagued by unethical marketing practices but insiders had believed they had largely been stamped out.
Indiscretions include a ‘degrading’ American company offering British women free breast augmentations in return for sponsorship by male benefactors, who could then ‘receive custom photos of … favourite girls’.
In a 2005 report by the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons, Transform was previously criticised for offering a loyalty card scheme that allegedly encouraged multiple procedures while other private companies were castigated for appointing sales reps paid on a commission to promote plastic surgery.
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