Cosmetic cowboys who put lives at risk targetted after botched buttocks operation

Fatal injection: dancer Claudia Aderotimi had treatment to enhance her buttocks
12 April 2012

Cosmetic 'cowboys' who put the lives of patients at risk are facing a new clampdown.

A campaign launched today by Shireen Ritchie, stepmother of film director Guy, warns women to avoid backstreet clinics or end up being disfigured for life.

Baroness Ritchie is heading a new independent working group targeting rogue providers of cosmetic jabs. The panel will investigate complaints from patients and also punish registered clinics that breach safety standards.

The crackdown follows the death of Claudia Aderotimi, an aspiring dancer from east London who had botched treatment to enhance her buttocks.

The 20-year-old received a fatal injection of silicone at a budget hotel in Philadelphia last month. It was the second time Ms Aderotimi had undergone the illegal treatment. Police have named the woman suspected of administering the dose as a transgender singer. Baroness Ritchie said the case showed the dangers of using self-styled therapists who have little or no training.

The peer has been appointed by the Independent Healthcare Advisory Service, an industry body which runs a register of medically-trained practitioners. She is to meet Health Secretary Andrew Lansley to recommend the need for tighter controls on the multi-million-pound business.

In an interview with the Evening Standard, she said: "Patients need to be protected and the industry needs to work together to ensure this is happening. Unfortunate cases of poor practice have brought the issue of safety in injectable cosmetics into the limelight."

About one in 20 of the one million Britons who have cosmetic jabs each year suffer complications, including droopy eyelids from Botox and lumps under the skin from fillers.

Baroness Ritchie launched the Governance Group for the Government-backed register, Treatments You Can Trust.

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