The Harley Medical Group, the UK’s largest cosmetic surgery provider, has reported that the “city boy bonus” cosmetic surgery, which is usually buoyant early in the year, has been replaced with what’s been dubbed “city severance surgery” where city bankers are using their redundancy packages to rejuvenate their appearances for the challenges they face when trying to secure a new job.

Harley Medical also reports that the last three months and into January 2009 has seen a “softening” of 2008’s strong Breast Augmentation market which was popular with 20-something women in particular, whilst the “silver surgery” market has seen an increase. Overall, 2008 was a bumper year for the Harley Medical Group, with surgical business up 26% year on year.

Liz Dale, Director at the Harley Medical Group commented: “The market is moving almost on a weekly basis in 2009, with our City and Marlow clinics seeing a decline on “city boy bonus surgery” but almost pound for pound this market has been replaced by the “city severance surgery” with City patients using redundancy money to fund cosmetic surgery procedures. This has been reported by our City, Chelmsford and Marlow clinics in particular, with over 230 patients coming through the doors of our 25 clinics over the last three months citing redundancy money as their funding source.”

Lorraine Midwinter took voluntary redundancy from Lloyds TSB after 31 years service. Just one month after being made redundant, she booked into the Harley Medical Group’s Bristol clinic and opted for liposuction to her chin and abdomen. She said: “I’d thought about having surgery for some time but losing my job helped me make up my mind to go ahead with the procedure. Having the procedure has given me a huge confidence boost. I managed to secure an excellent new job two months after my severance surgery.”

While the breast augmentation market has slowed down over the past three months, facial surgery has enjoyed an uplift of 9% over the last quarter, which is in part due to “city severance surgery” patients opting for facial procedures. Experts also claim that the uplift in facial surgery could be down to a desire amongst people to increase their employability by improving their “fresh faced appeal”. Rhinoplasty, blepharoplasty and face lifts have seen the strongest three month growth.

In 2009 The Harley Medical Group predicts that while surgical procedures, without enjoying the big patient increases that have been common in recent years, will continue to make up the majority of the bookings, non-surgical treatments will continue to grow significantly in 2009.

The Harley Medical Group’s programme of 2009 non-surgical product launches has begun with the introduction of the Obagi Blue Chemical Peel. Following an 86% growth in skin treatments year-on-year for 2008, the highly effective Obagi Blue has been dubbed by doctors as the “Recessionista’s Facelift”, thanks to its striking results and relatively low cost.

Amongst the other new treatments due to be released in 2009 exclusively through The Harley Medical Group is the first and only Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved treatment for successfully reducing and removing stretch marks, a problem that afflicts nearly 90% of all women over the age of 25 and a new liposuction for removal of unwanted fat that is faster, less traumatic and far more effective that the current treatments available in the UK or Ireland.

About The Harley Medical Group:
The Harley Medical Group is the UK’s largest cosmetic surgery provider, performing more procedures and with more clinics than any other cosmetic surgery provider. It has been established for over 25 years and is one of the most highly-regarded Cosmetic Surgery Groups operating in the UK. It has conducted over 450,000 procedures to date.

Via EPR Network
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