You Know It Makes Sense
THE SPECTATOR: If the NHS is ‘fair’, give me unfairness any day

Did I ever tell you about the time the National Health Service relieved me of my piles? It’s a painful story — and for many of you, no doubt, already far, far more information than you want. But I do think it goes a long way towards explaining our ongoing Eloi-like subservience to the great, slobbering, brutish NHS Morlock which we so rose-tintedly delude ourselves is still the ‘Envy of the World’.

Look, if you don’t want to read about piles (‘’roids’ if you’re American), I should skip on a few pars. The key thing to recognise is that from tiny beginnings, they mutate into an all-consuming misery. Enjoying a night in front of the TV? Yeah, but the piles! Having a relaxing bath? Yeah, but the piles! Fancy going riding? Eek! You can see why Napoleon — a fellow sufferer — felt compelled to conquer half the world. Anything to distract yourself from what’s going on down below.

So naturally when a surgeon relieves you of the buggers, you feel exceedingly grateful. I remember coming round after my op in my overstretched local hospital — King’s in south London — two or three years back, and thinking the thought that occurs to all British citizens at some time or another: ‘Gawd bless you NHS! You have saved my sorry arse!’

One reason for my gratitude was that the treatment was free. Gosh, I love being given expensive things for free, don’t you? I like it so much I think I’d almost rather be poor and get lots of free stuff than I would be rich and be able to afford anything I wanted. Free stuff — thanks, lovely Dan from Mongoose cricket bats — feels like a gift from God; proof that life isn’t quite as sucky and thankless and horribly unfair as you imagine. >>> James Delingpole | Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Fat, Unfit NHS Staff Top the Sick League
TIMES ONLINE: More than 45,000 NHS workers call in sick each day — one and a half times the rate of absence seen in the private sector.

The first national audit of staff habits has found that high rates of obesity, smoking, absenteeism and poor mental health are having a direct impact on the quality of patient care.

Dr Steve Boorman, a leading occupational health expert, was asked by the Government to assess links between staff habits and NHS productivity. He will present his interim review today. His findings are drawn from six months of staff surveys, workshops, data reviews and responses from trusts and experts.

— More than 45,000 NHS workers are calling in sick every day, one and a half times the rate of absence in the private sector. Reducing the 10.3 million working days lost per year by a third would save the NHS £555 million annually.

— More than one in five staff smoke, the same proportion as in the adult population. About 40,000 NHS workers smoke more than 20 cigarettes a day.

— More than a third of the workforce are in moderate to very poor mental health, with many expressing concern about intimidation from patients and their relatives[.]

— Hospitals with worse staff health are less productive and have higher rates of superbug infection, unnecessary use of agency workers and higher patient mortality rates. More than three-quarters of staff believe that the state of their health affects patient care.

— About 40 per cent undertake exercise less than the Government’s three recommended occasions a week. >>> Sam Lister, Health Editor | Wednesday, August 19, 2009

White House Backs Off Public Healthcare Option
LOS ANGELES TIMES: Obama and officials say it is not 'essential' to the overhaul. Insurance exchanges or cooperatives would be likely to replace it.

Reporting from Washington - The Obama administration signaled Sunday that it was on the verge of abandoning a government-run insurance option in its healthcare overhaul -- a bow to political reality and a big win for insurers.

But some experts said that may not completely relieve pressure on insurers to deliver cost savings.

Both Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said on Sunday talk shows that a government insurance option was not essential -- one day after President Obama himself said as much.

Private-sector options, such as insurance exchanges or cooperatives, would be likely to replace it. Obama already has proposed forming exchanges -- virtual marketplaces where private insurers would compete for consumers' business. And co-ops would allow consumers to band together to negotiate coverage.

Sebelius told CNN's "State of the Union" that a public option is "not the essential element" of healthcare overhaul, but that lowering insurance costs and preventing insurers from dumping customers for preexisting conditions or for exceeding coverage caps are must-haves.

"I think there will be a competitor to private insurers," she said. "That's really the essential part, is you don't turn over the whole new marketplace to private insurance companies and trust them to do the right thing."

Gibbs agreed, describing the "bottom line" for the president: "What we have to have is choice and competition in the insurance market."

Obama continues to believe that "the option of a government plan is the best way to provide choice and competition," Gibbs said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

But if there are other means to achieve that, Gibbs said, "the president will be satisfied." >>> Andrew Zajac | Monday, August 17, 2009

US Healthcare Reforms Cause Outrage and Fears of a 'Socialist State'
TIMES ONLINE: The retired coal miner queuing in the midday sun has come to the town hall meeting with heavy political baggage. “I’ll keep my money and guns — you keep the change,” warns the badge pinned to Carl Anderson’s chest. In his hand is a banner that states simply: “Revolution is Brewing.”

He is here to protest against health reform. Mr Anderson, 70, has travelled 65 miles with seven of his friends and family to add his booming voice to the pensioners’ revolt that has shaken America in the past two weeks.

Convinced that President Obama wants to turn the country into a socialist state, starting with a nationalised health service, he hopes to hijack the political agenda.

Arlen Specter, the local Democratic Senator, is about to get an ear-bashing; his fourth in four days. Mr Anderson obliges: “I have no problem with my healthcare,” he says. “We have the best healthcare in the world. If there is anything I need, I get it.”

Mr Obama’s $1 trillion (£600 billion) health reform Bill would end that, he fears. There will be rationing of treatment, and the old will bear the brunt. “They are going to start evaluating people at the age of 55,” Mr Anderson says.

Most of the roughly 1,000 people outside the community hall of Kittanning, a mining town in the Appalachian hills 50 miles north of Pittsburgh, seem to share Mr Anderson’s views, to judge by their banners. “Nobama,” says one, adorned with the skull and crossbones. “Obama lies, grandma dies,” proclaims another. >>> Imre Karacs, Kittanning, Pennsylvania | Saturday, August 15, 2009

Daniel Hannan: Government-run Healthcare Would Be ’Deeply Un-American’

Americans Are Better Off Without an NHS
THE TELEGRAPH: A propaganda war is masking the real problems over health care reform, says Toby Harnden.

If Stephen Hawking had been treated in Britain, he would not have survived to be awarded his Presidential Medal of Freedom by Barack Obama yesterday, because the NHS "would say the life of this brilliant man, because of his physical handicaps, is essentially worthless". That was the thundering verdict of the Investor's Business Daily on our National Health Service and Mr Obama's plans to introduce what Republicans term "socialised medicine".

It was, as scientists sometimes say, a beautiful hypothesis destroyed by a single ugly fact. Professor Hawking, who is completely paralysed by motor neurone disease, has been treated by the NHS throughout his 67 years, and points out indignantly that he would not have lived without its care.

Much of the conservative contribution to the health care debate raging in the United States, which is dominating a long, hot summer, has been as misguided as that newspaper editorial. With the battle lines drawn, and President Obama staking his credibility on achieving a comprehensive reform that delivers health insurance to the tens of millions without it, Democratic members of Congress are facing the wrath and anxiety of their constituents – who are being urged on by opponents of reform.

Sarah Palin, who recently resigned as Alaska's governor but remains the darling of rural conservatives, invoked the spectre of a "death panel" pronouncing on whether her baby Trig, who has Down's syndrome, should be allowed to live.

Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa suggested that this was what happened in Britain. "I've heard several senators say that Ted Kennedy with a brain tumour, being 77 years old … if he were in England, would not be treated… when you get to be 77, your life is considered less valuable under those systems," he said.

In a television ad from the Club for Growth pressure group, a narrator intones portentously as images of Big Ben and the Union flag appear on the screen: "$22,750. In England, government health officials decided that's how much six months of life is worth. Under their socialised system, if a medical treatment costs more, you're out of luck. That's wrong for America." Cue the Statue of Liberty and the Stars and Stripes.

The figure comes from Britain's National Institute for Clinical Evidence, which evaluates treatments in terms of the average increase in life expectancy. If the cost of prolonging someone's life for a year exceeds more than £30,000, then the NHS will not pay for that treatment. In other words, although there are no "death panels", the fundamental point is correct. The NHS does decide that some treatments are too expensive. And if that means you die? Our condolences, says the Government. >>> Toby Harnden | sday, August 12, 2009

Betsy McCaughey Exposes Obama Healthcare Lies


Gordon and Sarah Brown Join US Pro-NHS Twitter Campaign
THE TELEGRAPH: Gordon Brown has joined in the Twitter campaign to defend the National Health Service following protests in the United States at Barack Obama's drive to reform the American healthcare system.

The Prime Minister's wife, Sarah, also leapt to the defence of the NHS, after US critics opposed to the President's reforms described the British system as "evil" and "Orwellian."

Many Republicans are opposed to what they term as "socialised" medicine. But Britons living in the US and in this country furious at the attacks have hit back by organising a campaign on the social networking site urging backers of the NHS to send messages of support.

Andy Burnham, the Health Secretary, is among those who have taken part, along with thousands of ordinary members of the public.

Such is the popularity of the campaign - called #welovethenhs - that the site crashed yesterday.

Mr Brown used the Downing Street twitter page to add his support. His message said: "PM; NHS often makes the difference between pain and comfort, despair and hope, life and death. Thanks for always being there."

Mrs Brown added: "#we love the nhs - more than we can say." The Health Secretary twittered: "Andy Burnham: Over the moon about strong support for the NHS - an institution I will defend to my dying day." >>> Rosa Prince, Political Correspondent | Thursday, August 13, 2009

NHS: "An Orgasm a Day Keeps the Doctor Away"
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: NHS guidance is advising school pupils that they have a "right" to an enjoyable sex life and that regular sex can be good for their cardiovascular health.

The advice appears in leaflets circulated to parents, teachers and youth workers and is meant to update sex education by telling students about the benefits of enjoyable sex.

The authors of the guidance say that for too long, experts have concentrated on the need for "safe sex" and committed relationships while ignoring the principle reason that many people have sex.

Entitled Pleasure, the leaflet has been drawn up by NHS Sheffield, but it also being circulated outside the city.

The leaflet carries the slogan "an orgasm a day keeps the doctor away". It also says: "Health promotion experts advocate five portions of fruit and veg a day and 30 minutes' physical activity three times a week. What about sex or masturbation twice a week?" NHS tells school children of their "right" to "an orgasm a day" >>> Roya Nikkhah | Sunday, July 12, 2009

Muslim Dentist 'Refused to Treat Female Patients Unless They Wore Islamic Dress'
Omer Butt. Photo courtesy of MailOnline
MAIL Online: A Muslim dentist refused to treat patients unless they wore traditional Islamic dress, it was alleged today.

Omer Butt, 32, ordered women to put on head scarves or he would not register them or their families at his NHS-funded clinic, it was claimed.

At least two patients were left in pain after they declined to follow his self-imposed rules, the General Dental Council heard.

It is the second time that the dentist - who is the brother of a former spokesman of the radical Islamic group al-Muhajiroun - has appeared before the council's disciplinary panel on similar allegations.

Two years ago he was reprimanded for telling an Asian mother-of-two he would not register her unless she wore the Muslim hijab.

The GDC heard how Butt believed it was his duty to stop Muslim patients committing what he believed was a religious sin.

He even put a laminated sign on the wall of his waiting room telling patients they would have to adhere to his strict dress code or find another dentist.

John Snell, for the GDC, said: 'He sought to impose a dress code on patients attending his practice.

'He required that women cover their hair with a head scarf, or hijab, and that male patients remove any gold jewellery.

'If he had simply expressed a preference, without imposing any compulsion to adhere to this dress code, there may be no cause for complaint.

'However, he insisted - and those who did not comply were refused treatment.

'He made compliance with Islamic dress code a condition of treatment, which is entirely inappropriate under the auspices of the National Health Service.

'Patients should have access to NHS treatment regardless of their religious observance, or otherwise.' >>> By Tom Kelly | Friday, May 8, 2009

NHS Staff Face Sack If They Discuss Religion
Caroline Petrie fell foul of the system by offering a Christian to prayer to one of her patients. Photo courtesy of The Telegraph
All National Health Service employees risk losing their job if they discuss their religious beliefs with colleagues or patients, The Daily Telegraph has learnt.

Following overwhelming public support for Caroline Petrie, the Christian nurse who was suspended after she offered to pray for an elderly patient, her employers have caved [sic] said she could return to her job.

The row over her treatment has reached the House of Commons, with Sir Patrick Cormack, the Tory MP for South Staffordshire, claiming that her case had highlighted the “utter absurdities” of political correctness.

Although Mrs Petrie was relieved her ordeal was over, fears have been raised that new rules could lead to the dismissal of any health care worker who tries to talk about their faith to others.

A little-noticed document published by the Department of Health last month gives warning that attempts by doctors or nurses to preach to other staff or patients will be treated as harassment or intimidation under disciplinary procedures.

But it does not make clear the limits of acceptable discussion about religion.

Faith groups said the guidelines were so vague that they could mean action could be taken against anyone who talks about their beliefs to fellow workers or patients. >>> By Martin Beckford and Caroline Gammell | Thursday, February 5, 2009

THE TELEGRAPH: Nurse Caroline Petrie: I Will Continue Praying for Patients

The nurse suspended for offering to pray for a patient has vowed not to change because she cannot separate her faith from her profession.

Caroline Petrie, who has been reinstated as a community nurse, said she did not think she would be doing her job properly if she was forbidden from offering spiritual comfort to her patients.

"It is me, it is a natural thing for me to do," she said. "If I am nursing, I would offer prayer to somebody and I am not going to change."

Mrs Petrie, 45, from Weston-super-Mare, was removed from duties last December after asking an elderly patient in Winscombe, Somerset, if she wanted her to pray for her.

Although the 79-year-old woman was not offended, she was "taken aback" by the suggestion and reported the comment to her carer.

Mrs Petrie was subsequently suspended on suspicion of failing to "demonstrate a personal and professional commitment to equality and diversity", while the hospital investigated.

Two months later, after her case appeared in the media, North Somerset Primary Care Trust relented and said she could come back to work, but Mrs Petrie did not know about the decision until she was contacted by The Daily Telegraph.

Yesterday the mother-of-two said she would behave in exactly the same way: "I cannot divide my faith from my nursing care, I have to be the person I want to be. >>> By Caroline Gammell | Friday, February 6, 2009

THE TELEGRAPH: Hospitals Betray Their History by Banishing Prayer

It is ironic that the country which fostered the Christian tradition of nursing chose to suspend a nurse who wished to pray for her patient, says Bishop Nazir-Ali.

Hospitals began in the Eastern part of the Christian Church, inspired by Christ’s example of serving and caring for the poor, the sick and the needy. They spread rapidly to the west and were closely associated with religious orders and their duty to offer hospitality to any in need. The oldest hospital in the land, I believe, is in Rochester and it is called St Bartholomew’s, like its more famous name-sake in London. The names — St Thomas’s, St Richard’s, St Mary’s — betray their origins and quite often these foundations continue to have connections with the Church. How is it, then, that the Christian faith is becoming more and more marginal in the very places that owe their origin to it? Why are chapels being replaced by “multi-faith rooms” and how can it be that a nurse, Caroline Petrie, can be suspended for offering to pray for a patient who could have and did say “no, thank you”. Why did the matter not end there?

Praise be! Mrs Petrie is being allowed to return to work — but are other people vulnerable to the same kind of treatment? People’s personal beliefs and their professional practice are often closely inter-related. Of all professions, nursing is one that is firmly rooted in the Christian tradition. It arose first in the religious orders and although it began to become secularised after the Reformation, its Christian foundations were re-discovered by people like Florence Nightingale: the founder, in many ways, of modern nursing. During a visit to Egypt she studied the work of the Sisters of Charity at Alexandria and also of the order of deaconesses in Germany. Whilst in the Crimea, she is known to have prayed for the soldiers who were her patients. It was her inspiration which led to the training of nurses in a systematic way in this country and she was hugely influential in the increase of Christian medical missions in Africa, Asia and elsewhere. In many parts of the world, these missions pioneered the practice of modern medicine and, especially, the training and use of nurses in hospitals. This debt is widely acknowledged in the countries concerned. How ironic that it is in Britain that a nurse is threatened with the loss of her job for offering to pray for someone who was unwell – especially when it seems that prayer at the beginning of work was routine for nurses in many British hospitals right up to the 1960s and there are numerous prayers available for nurses to use. >>> By Bishop Nazir-Ali | Saturday, February 7, 2009

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback & Hardback) – Free delivery >>>

Hold Back the Tears if You Can!
THE TELEGRAPH: A Muslim woman was forced out of her job at a hospital after refusing to bare her arms in order to comply with new hygiene rules.

The radiographer was told by managers at the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading that she must either follow the national dress code designed to combat superbugs and roll her sleeves up, or leave.

She refused to abide by the rules and left her job, claiming she was discriminated against and forced to choose between her religious beliefs and her livelihood. Islam teaches that women should dress modestly and cover their bodies while in public.

The woman, who has worked as a therapeutic radiographer for 10 years, has described her situation as a "continuous nightmare" and says she has been "emotionally torn about" over losing her job.

She said that she fears she may not be able to get another job, but has vowed to campaign against the NHS's "bare below the elbows" policy.

The woman, who did not want to be identified, said she wants to "prevent the policy from being universally applied, so other Muslim women do not experience the same trauma."

Amid growing concern about the number of patients catching superbugs such as MRSA and Clostridium difficile while in hospital, the NHS introduced a new dress code for staff in January that was designed to prevent them transmitting bacteria.

The rules require all doctors and nurses who come into contact with patients to have their arms bare below the elbows, by wearing short-sleeved clothes or rolling up their sleeves. Jewellery, watches and false nails were also banned to reduce the risk of infection by staff.

However the policy was criticised by some Muslim doctors and medical students for going against the teachings of the Qu'ran on dress. Muslim Radiographer Loses Job after Refusing to Bare Her Arms >>> By Martin Beckford, Religious Affairs Correspondent | September 1, 2008

THE TELEGRAPH – related:
Female Muslim Medics 'Disobey Hygiene Rules' >>> By Julie Henry and Laura Donnelly | February 4, 2008

The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Dust Jacket Hardcover, direct from the publishers (UK) >>>
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The Disgraceful Doctors in the National Health Service!
I’ll tell you what the NHS cannot afford: It cannot afford to treat the freeloaders coming from abroad, and it cannot afford to treat the illegal immigrants, either. Those are the people it cannot afford to treat. Leave the ‘old’ alone, and leave the ‘smokers’ alone, too.

How disgusting these doctors are! Do your bloody job! Heaven knows, you’re paid enough for doing it.

THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Doctors are calling for NHS treatment to be withheld from patients who are too old or who lead unhealthy lives.

Smokers, heavy drinkers, the obese and the elderly should be barred from receiving some operations, according to doctors, with most saying the health service cannot afford to provide free care to everyone.

Fertility treatment and "social" abortions are also on the list of procedures that many doctors say should not be funded by the state.

The findings of a survey conducted by Doctor magazine sparked a fierce row last night, with the British Medical Association and campaign groups describing the recommendations from family and hospital doctors as "out­rageous" and "disgraceful". Don't treat the old and unhealthy, say doctors >>> By Laura Donnelly, Health Correspondent

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)

How Much More Bloody Nonsense Must We Read About? Now the Sick Have to Face Makkah!
DAILY MAIL: The job of the nurse used to [be] one of caring for the sick and needy.

But not - it would seem - in today's politically-correct Britain.

Now, nurses are being encouraged to spend valuable time turning around the beds of Muslim patients up to five times a day - so they can face Mecca.

In a bid to promote cultural understanding, they are also expected to provide patients with running water so they can wash before prayer.

And then, of course, they are required to turn the beds back around to return the wards to normality. The measures are being pursued by Mid Yorkshire NHS Trust to ensure Muslim patients have a "more comfortable stay in hospital".

Hundreds of staff have attended tax-payer-funded workshops with Muslim GPs and ethnic-minority support groups on how best to help patients.

During these meetings, nurses have been told that if a patient asks for water to bathe in, or for their bed to be turned to face Mecca, then this should be considered.

If the measure is deemed "practically possible" and does not impinge on other patients, then it should be carried out.

And if it is not practical, nurses are encouraged to find them a bed that faces Mecca permanently. Hospital staff told to make sure Muslim patients' beds face Mecca five times a day >>> By Gwyneth Rees

Mark Alexander (Hardback)
Mark Alexander (Paperback)

NHS Doctors Revolt Ant-White Bias
THE SUNDAY TIMES: ONE of Britain’s most eminent consultants has claimed white male doctors are being denied bonuses because of politically correct “reverse discrimination” by the National Health Service.

David Rosin, a former vice-president of the Royal College of Surgeons, says female and ethnic minority consultants are being given preferential treatment to meet artificial quotas.

Rosin, also a former president of the Association for Cancer Surgery, failed to get the top “platinum award” award 10 years in a row despite being backed in his application by the royal college and his NHS trust.

He said: “When I asked a previous president [of the Royal College of Surgeons] why I had been unsuccessful, the answer came back immediately: ‘What do you expect? You are not black, you are not female and you have all four limbs.’ ”

Rosin’s comments are likely to provoke a row about whether policies to promote equal opportunities in the NHS have led to positive discrimination. Figures show a dramatic increase in the number of women and ethnic minorities winning merit awards over the past five years. They can add up to £73,000 to a consultant’s annual salary of about £112,000.

Ministers and NHS chiefs have been encouraging more women and ethnic minorities to apply. Supporters say that in the past the vast majority of the extra payments went to an “old boys’ network” of sometimes “mediocre” white male consultants.

However, Rosin, who retired from his NHS post as a senior consultant surgeon at St Mary’s NHS Trust hospital, London, in June, believes it has now tipped into positive discrimination.

“It is time that someone spoke up concerning the reverse discrimination with respect to merit awards,” he wrote in a letter to the magazine Hospital Doctor. “In the politically correct environment in which we live, there is now definitely reverse discrimination.” Doctors’ revolt at anti-white bias (more) By Sarah-Kate Templeton

Mark Alexander

Giving “Virginity Fixes” on the NHS Is Totally Indefensible
Photo of Muslimatoon courtesy of the Daily Mail
DAILY MAIL: Even by the standards of medical horror stories that have filled our papers of late, it's a tale that beggars belief. According to the latest figures, some 24 women have recently had their virginities "restored", not by some divine miracle or act of magic, but by a surgical procedure paid for by our already hard-pressed National Health Service.

How ridiculous, how dangerous and how indefensible. At a time when cancer and Alzheimer's patients are routinely deprived of drugs, the idea that a single penny of NHS funding is spent on repairing something as fragile, ephemeral and medically useless as a woman's hymen is absurd.

Only where a young woman has been raped or violently sexually assaulted can there even be the slightest justification for the NHS to pay for such a procedure. And yet in 2005-2006, the NHS clearly decided otherwise time and time again.

So who are these women who are seeking to have their virginities restored? According to the figures, they are "immigrants and British women of ethnic origin".

Well, speaking as a British woman of ethnic origin, let me make it clear. The British NHS should simply not be paying for a cosmetic procedure that is unnecessary, demeaning to women and totally at odds with modern British culture.

The report accompanying the figures is too politically correct to identify the religion of the women who have had the operation, but it's my informed guess that most of them - all of them, perhaps - will turn out to be Muslim.

As the daughter of parents who arrived in Britain from Pakistan in the mid-Sixties, I'm a Muslim myself but I'm appalled by the sort of cultural pressures these women must be under to seek such a procedure.

But I'm also angry that the NHS has agreed to carry them out. By paying for and performing such operations, the NHS isn't furthering the integration of the Muslim community into the British way of life; in fact, it's doing quite the opposite.

It's effectively condoning an increasingly fundamentalist Islamic culture that is patriarchal, regressive and increasingly demeaning to women. Surely that has no place in the Britain of today? As a British Muslim I find 'virginity repairs' on the NHS dangerous, demeaning ... and utterly indefensible (more) By Saira Khan

Mark Alexander

Virginity Fixes: Don’t Waste Taxpayers’ Money on This Nonsense!
THE DAILY MAIL: Women are being given controversial "virginity repair" operations on the NHS, it emerged last night.

Taxpayers funded 24 hymen replacement operations between 2005 and 2006, official figures revealed.

And increasing numbers of women are paying up to £4,000 in private clinics for the procedure apparently under pressure from future spouses or in-laws who believe they should be virgins on their wedding night.

Doctors said most patients are immigrants or British of ethnic origin.

The trend has been condemned by critics as a sign of social regression driven by Islamic fundamentalists. Some countries have made hymen reconstruction operations illegal.

Dr Magdy Hend, consultant gynaecologist at the Regency Clinic, Harley Street, London, who started hymen reconstruction more than 18 years ago in the Middle East and the Gulf, said: "In some cultures they like to see that the women will bleed on the wedding night. If the wife or bride is not a virgin, it is a big shame on the family."

Dr Hend said he was surprised by the "very good response" to the service and said there is "big competition on the market".
Most of his clients, he told More4 News, are in their teens or early 20s.

"They might be British of ethnic background, they might be immigrants, or some people come from abroad, Asia, Middle East, the Gulf, and they don't want to have it done back home," he added.

Dr Hend said demand is increasing, particularly from UK residents.

The operation can involve suturing of a tear in the hymen, such as might be caused by sexual assault, to help healing.

But it can also be conducted as a purely cosmetic procedure. A membrane is constructed, sometimes including a capsule of an artificial blood-like substance.

This operation is intended to be performed within a few days before an intended marriage. Women get 'virginity fix' NHS operations in Muslim-driven trend (more) By James Chapman

Mark Alexander