A cosmetic surgery company has been criticised as it offers patients a holiday voucher should they book an operation by the summer. The Transform medical group has launched such a thing as a VIP "privilege club" whereby customers collect "surgery points".
The British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS) condemned such practices as marketing ploys, saying that people ought not to be encouraged to have operations in order to attain that perfect "summer body". * Under this offer, patients who book and have any plastic surgery in May or June will get a Thomas Cook voucher.
This gets them £100 off a Mediterranean holiday or a £200 discount off a Thomas Cook faraway places holiday.
Once a patient has spent £2,000, they are invited to the launch of the company's non-surgical loyalty scheme.
The number of people having cosmetic surgery increased by a third in 2005.
BAAPS stated that its members carried out 22,041 surgical procedures in the UK in 2005, up 35% on 2004, 89% were carried out on women. In 2005, Chief Medical Officer Sir Liam Donaldson led the launch of a website which assists people to obtain more information on plastic surgery .
