A PANEL of top plastic surgeons has attacked a company offering loyalty cards and gift vouchers for surgery.

The British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons claims Manchester-based Transform is "trivialising" cosmetic surgery by promoting vouchers and loyalty cards, as well as offering non-surgical procedures as raffle prizes at a forthcoming beauty show.

The company has clinics in Manchester city centre, Bowdon and Gatley offering surgical procedures such as liposuction and breast implants, as well as non-surgical procedures such as Botox.

Adam Searle, president of the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons, said at their annual conference: "This trivialisation and commoditisation of medical procedures is appalling.

"It seems to have come down to the level of loyalty cards, money-off vouchers, competition prizes and even a raffle prize of a procedure of your choice. This belittling of the seriousness of undertaking a medical procedure degrades not only our specialty but also the medical profession as a whole.

Epidemic

"The true tragedy is that within this epidemic of rather tasteless activity there are going to be patients who experience significant complications and lifelong damage from pursuing ill-planned and ill-thought out operations."

Transform first sparked criticism from BAAPS by launching the gift voucher scheme last Christmas and the company announced the new loyalty scheme in August. Every customer who has four non-surgical treatments gets £200 to spend on another treatment.

Elizabeth Dale, marketing director for Transform, said: "We are far from trivialising cosmetic surgery.

"The people who come to us have thought long and hard about it before even picking up the phone to speak to us.

"We see it as our responsibility to make sure everyone who comes to Transform talks everything through very thoroughly with a surgeon and then go home to have a cooling off period to decide whether they definitely want to go ahead."

She added that the loyalty cards "were something our customers were asking us for" and "all we are doing is rewarding their loyalty".

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