International

Thousands of women in the Netherlands and throughout Europe are victims of inferior quality breast prostheses, the so-called PIP implants. SP Member of Parliament Henk van Gerven argues that now the manufacturer of these implants is behind bars the victims must become the main focus of attention. “These women have been victims of a fraudulent manufacturer who sold cheap and inferior prostheses,” he says. “Hospitals and clinics which inserted these prostheses must offer these women their help free of charge in order to prevent them becoming seriously ill when the implants leak.”

Van Gerven will shortly discuss the matter in Parliament with Health Minister Edith Schippers, but believes that action must be taken immediately. Cost-free aid to the victims by hospitals and clinics who inserted the implants should only be the start of such action, he says. He also wants to see a central registration system so that better records can be kept of which prostheses were employed by whom, as well as a tightening of quality criteria. “The quality marks used aren’t working,” he says. “It’s surely not too much to ask that prostheses should be safe in the long term? The implants that have caused so much suffering here are banned in the United States.”
In addition to these measures Van Gerven wants to strengthen the position of the victims by a stipulation that clinics and suppliers are responsible should prostheses fail, and improve surveillance of clinics, including private facilities, by the health care inspectorate.