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Untrained docs enlarging breasts in Switzerland

Non-qualified doctors are carrying out one in five breast enlargement operations in Switzerland, plastic surgeons have warned. 

Published: 8 February 2012 13:34 CET
Untrained docs enlarging breasts in Switzerland
J Webb (File)

Stefan Hägeli, director of the independent advice centre for cosmetic surgery, Accredis, believes that women between the ages of 20 and 30 years are especially vulnerable.

“This age group is particularly trusting and extremely uncritical,” Hägeli told newspaper 20 Minutes. “It is more important to them to have their breasts enlarged as cheaply and as quickly as possible.”

The Society for Plastic Surgeons (SGPRAC) has written to the government requesting tighter checks on people working in beauty surgery. The SGPRC will meet on Wednesday to discuss how to move matters forward.

The current law allows doctors to decide themselves what operations they are capable of performing. This means that doctors from other specializations such as dermatology or gynaecology are turning their hands to the more profitable enlargement operations.

Only in the event that a patient makes an accusation about her treatment is the doctor’s competency to carry out such an operation assessed.

“The scandal with faulty implants reflects just the tip of the iceberg,” SGPRAC board member Dominique Erni said, referring to defective implants made by PIP.

The founder of the now-defunct French company is facing criminal charges over implants produced with industrial-grade silicone to cut costs.  

Despite the call for greater regulation, the Federal Office for Public Health (BAG) is resistant to introducing specialist permits for particular types of surgery.

According to a BAG spokesman, the keeping and updating of a list describing which doctors could perform which operations would be too complicated.

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UN

‘The war must end now’: UN Sec-Gen meets Swedish PM in Stockholm

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres met Sweden's Prime Minister in Stockholm on Wednesday, ahead of the conference marking the 50th anniversary of the city's historic environment summit .

Published: 1 June 2022 15:46 CEST
'The war must end now': UN Sec-Gen meets Swedish PM in Stockholm

After a bilateral meeting with Magdalena Andersson on the security situation in Europe, Guterres warned that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could lead to a global food crisis that would hurt some of the world’s most vulnerable people. 

“It is causing immense suffering, destruction and devastation of the country. But it also inflames a three-dimensional global crisis in food, energy and finance that is pummelling the most vulnerable people, countries and economies,” the Portuguese diplomat told a joint press conference with Andersson. 

He stressed the need for “quick and decisive action to ensure a steady flow of food and energy,” including “lifting export restrictions, allocating surpluses and reserves to vulnerable populations and addressing food price increases to calm market volatility.”

Between the two, Russia and Ukraine produce around 30 percent of the global wheat supply.

Guterres was in Stockholm to take part in the Stockholm 50+ conference, which celebrates the 50th anniversary of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment. 

The conference, which was held on the suggestion of the Swedish government in 1972 was the first UN meeting to discuss human impacts on the global environment, and led to the establishment of the UN Environment Program (UNEP). 

At the joint press conference, Andersson said that discussions continued between Sweden and Turkey over the country’s continuing opposition to Sweden’s application to join the Nato security alliance. 

“We have held discussions with Turkey and I’m looking forward to continuing the constructive meetings with Turkey in the near future,” she said, while refusing to go into detail on Turkey’s demands. 

“We are going to take the demands which have been made of Sweden directly with them, and the same goes for any misunderstandings which have arisen,” she said. 

At the press conference, Guterres condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine as “a violation of its territorial integrity and a violation of the UN Charter”.

“The war must end now,” he said. 

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