A MODEL who had her faulty breast implants removed has called for recommendations to shake up the cosmetic surgery industry to be fully implemented.

Elizabeth Cathey, aged 25, from Worcester, was one of 40,000 women nationally to have the Poly Implant Prothese (PIP) implants but had them removed last year after health fears over the sub-standard implants were announced.

The review, by an independent group on behalf of the Department of Health, proposed a series of changes in a bid to improve the industry.

Plans include formal qualifications for anyone who injects fillers or Botox, a register of everyone who performs surgical or non-surgical cosmetic interventions and a ban on special financial offers for surgery.

Miss Cathey, who had a breast enlargement using PIPs when she was 18, welcomed the proposals, saying they could help spare women a similar ordeal to her and thousands of others who had the implants.

After the scare last year, she had her implants removed at her own cost, and the silicon inside was found to have leaked - what surgeons call a gel bleed.

Miss Cathey is a member of the UK-based PIP Action Campaign group, which has been battling for a legal settlement with some private clinics which have refused to unconditionally replace faulty implants.

She said: "The proposals put forward set out a more rigorous regime for an industry which, as the PIP scandal has shown, was under-regulated and placed service users at unacceptable risks, leaving many without proper redress when things went wrong.

"I particularly welcome the review group's recommendations calling for proper training across practitioners of all levels of the cosmetic surgery industry, the introduction of the ombudsman, and the development of a proper insurance system in the event of product failure or company insolvency.

"If implemented in full, I believe the recommendations will lead to greater protection and improved standards of safety for patients, as well as accountability for those delivering cosmetic surgery or related services.

"It is a shame the safeguards now being discussed will have come too late for many thousands of British women who were given faulty implants."

Next month, Miss Cathey will travel to Marseille in France with a group of British women, where a trial of five executives from the firm which supplied the faulty breast implants is underway.