Within a year, there will be a central register detailing everyone in Denmark who has had implant surgery.
This means, according to the Health Ministry, that it will be possible to find out in a matter of seconds everyone in the country who has received a given type of breast enhancement implant, hip replacement or knee replacement surgery, Metroxpress reports.
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Nick Hækkerup, the health minister, cites past cases of problematic implants as being the impetus for the register.
“Over the years there have unfortunately been a number of unfortunate cases in which patients have had hip replacements, breast implants and implants of other medical apparatus, which have subsequently led to problems,” he said.
Quickly find faults
As things stand, it is only possible to see which patients have been given implants by checking their medical records.
This made it difficult, for example, when the health authorities recently needed to find the 600 Danes who had received a faulty ASR hip joint implant from the American company DePuy.
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The initiative has been met with approval by the medical community, according to Michael Dupont, the head of the medical council at the doctors’ association Lægeforengingen.
“With the implant register it will be possible to quickly find and help patients if there turns out to be a problem or serious side-effects with particular implants,” he said.
