Daily Mail publishes NHS cosmetic surgery clarification
Last week we found that claims by the Daily Mail and Telegraph that the number of NHS cosmetic surgery operations had doubled in a decade were inaccurate.
We contacted the Mail, which has this morning published the following statement in the clarifications and corrections column:
"Following a report on July 5 about the rise in cosmetic surgery operations on the NHS, we are happy to clarify that, while an exact breakdown is unobtainable, some procedures were done to correct medical problems."
As the Mail says, the data doesn't tell us how many of the procedures had 'cosmetic' reasons, which includes reconstruction following surgery, or had other medical reasons such as eyelid surgery to improve vision or liposuction to treat swelling.
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It has also edited the online version of the article to make this more clear.
We also contacted the Telegraph, which has now updated its article to make clear that "the data do not distinguish between procedures carried out for cosmetic and non-cosmetic reasons."
Updated following the Telegraph's clarification of their article.