The Harley Medical Group has released its figures for 2008 while also revealing the cosmetic surgery trends that are expected in 2009

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our City and Marlow clinics seeing a decline on “city boy bonus surgery” but almost pound for pound this market has been replaced by the “city severance surgery” with City patients using redundancy money to fund cosmetic surgery procedures.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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PruHealth reports millions of Brits are intend to walk more to improve their health but three quarters have no idea how much they actually need to do

According to the latest research by PruHealth, Britons will be tightening their shoe laces as well as their purse strings in 2009 as 20.5 million* intend to take up walking to get healthy and shed unwanted pounds.

PruHealth, the health insurance provider that rewards people for engaging in healthy behaviour, found that nearly two thirds of Brits (61%) planned to begin a new diet, health or fitness regime in the New Year. Of those, almost three quarters (70%) said they plan to walk regularly as part of their healthy start to 2009. However, the majority of those who want to exercise by walking (15.3 million – 75%) are far off the mark when it comes to knowing exactly how much they will need to do each day to benefit.

Currently the average Brit walks for 43 minutes a day (approximately 2.9 miles**), but acknowledges they need to do more and believes stepping this up to 57 minutes (or 3.8 miles) will provide the physical benefit they need. In reality health advice recommends everyone should in fact be taking 10,000 steps a day***, equating to nearer 5 miles or 75 minutes of walking. Encouragingly, 17% of Brits say they already walk around 10,000 steps a day, but a quarter (26%) feel they would need to dramatically change their lifestyle in order to achieve this.

PruHealth’s chief executive officer, Shaun Matisonn commented: “Walking is a great form of exercise so it’s very encouraging to see so many people wanting to incorporate it into their daily lives.

“There does, however, seem to be a misconception as to how much walking one should ideally be doing each day and the answer that it’s 10,000 steps is sure to come as a big surprise to many. It would be hard for anyone to hit this target immediately, but small changes such as getting off the bus a stop early, shopping locally without taking the car, or taking the dog for a longer walk, are all ‘steps’ in the right direction.”

PruHealth knows that it has never been more important for people to lead healthy lifestyles and PruHealth’s Vitality Programme encourages people to do so. Vitality Index covers five areas – education, exercise, nutrition, screening and smoking cessation – and members could earn points by participating in healthy activities related to each area. By earning points, members can move up to different status levels (Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum) and earn lifestyle rewards, as well as potentially lowering the cost of their PMI premiums in the process.

 

* Research conducted by Opinium Research LLP 23rd – 30th December 2008,polling 2,233 British adults. Results have been weighted to nationally representative criteria (based on there being 48 million adults in the UK). 61 per cent of 48 million British adults intend to start a new diet, health or fitness regime = 29,280,000 adults. 70 per cent of these adults say regular walking will be part of this regime = 20,496,000 adults.
** The average respondent said they walked for 43 minutes per day. At an average of 4 miles per hour this equals 2.9 miles.
*** According to British Heart Foundation

About PruHealth
PruHealth was launched in October 2004 as a joint venture between Prudential and Discovery Holdings from South Africa. Since launch, PruHealth has grown quickly. It now provides medical insurance for more than 190,000 lives and in a sample of its individual customers, one third said they had changed their behaviour for the better because of its Vitality reward scheme which encourages policyholders to look after their health.

Via EPR Network
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