Nottingham woman whose breast implants burst says plastic surgery clinic deleted her medical records

The woman, from Bestwood, said the treatment she received was 'inhumane'

A Nottingham woman says a plastic surgery clinic told her they had deleted her medical records before she underwent an urgent NHS surgery. The patient, who wished to keep her identity private, had a breast augmentation procedure done at Transform, a clinic based in Manchester, eight years ago.

The woman, from Bestwood, says everything was fine at the time but she started noticing changes in one of her breasts in June. She rang the clinic and was told that the original company had ceased trading and because of that the new clinic couldn't help her access her medical records.

After giving personal details such as her date of birth, the patient says she came up on the system but claims that staff said they could not help her. The clinic says this is due to limited access to historical patient records following the takeover of the new management team in 2022.

The woman said: "They refused to help me in any way, shape or form. It was quite inhumane the way that they treated me. They just refused to help and I think it's disgusting because I paid thousands of pounds for that surgery."

The woman says that besides the almost £5,000 she paid for the breast augmentation, she paid an extra £150 for an extended care package that would have been in place for 10 years. She said: "It was awful. I wasn't asking for them to replace my implants. I was only asking for my information, however little."

After multiple back-and-forth calls, the woman was told all that appeared on the system about her was that she had a consultation, despite the first member of staff that she'd spoken to when she first complained about the changes to her breast being able to tell her what procedure she had done and where. She was then told her medical records had been deleted.

The woman then had her Allergan Natrelle implants removed at the Nottingham Breast Institute at City Hospital and found out both had ruptured. Allergan began a recall of implants already issued to distributors and healthcare providers in December 2018, however, the company did not advise providers that historic patients’ implants should be removed.

The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) says patients with Allergan breast implants should not seek to have the implants removed unless symptoms of BIA-ALCL (Breast Implant-Associated Anaplastic Large Cell Lymphoma) start appearing.

The Bestwood woman claims that had her NHS surgeon had access to her previous medical records his job would have been easier. She said: "Both of my implants had ruptured and there was a lot of fluid so the operation was carried out very quickly at City Hospital.

"My medical records would have helped them. It was really stressful, I was very worried and mentally drained. The fact that they did not help me was quite frustrating and it made me cry a lot because I think they shouldn't treat anybody that way."

A spokesperson for Transform said: "We cannot comment on individual cases due to patient confidentiality, however we do always provide patient records when requested if they are available to us. Transform Hospital Group ceased trading in 2022 – Transform is a new company under a new management team, meaning we have limited access to historical records. Safe and compassionate aftercare is Transform’s first priority."