“My NHS hip replacement poisoned me – now thousands of others are at risk too”

Professor Colin Howie, past president of the British Orthopedic Association (BOA), said modular neck products had a “higher failure rate… because the neck-stem joint fails faster and causes more wear and tear” .

He said the idea behind it was to adapt “various parameters of the neck” to suit the patient, but “actually, it wasn’t that successful.”

“If you have three joints, you’re going to have three times the wear problem. And not only that, but one of the joints is a metal-on-metal joint, and if it doesn’t fit properly, you’re going to get a lot of little wear particles,” he said.

“The actual chromium and cobalt isn’t the problem. It’s how it’s used, that’s the problem, and the number of support surfaces you have. The ions don’t really get produced unless they’re brought in a certain way.”

Studies have linked implants to higher-than-usual rates of failure, fractures, and poisoning.

Experts at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia found that implants needed to be replaced within two years in 13 percent of patients and within five years in 22 percent.

Last year, a study led by the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow found that “there is now very strong evidence of a link between hip replacements where metals such as cobalt and chromium are used in the artificial bearings of the joints, and the possibility of developing cardiac complications”. .

Others have also suffered the effects of cobalt poisoning. Howard Piper was one such patient who has been successfully compensated by the NHS for clinical negligence after cobalt poisoning left him with fatigue, mood swings and vision loss.

Dennis Reed, director of over-60s campaign group Silver Voices, called on the NHS and MHRA to investigate what could be “a huge scandal” and “not just put your finger in the air and hope “.

“We need to know the extent of the problems with these hips and what dangers the affected patients face,” he said. “The NHS should urgently investigate and report on the number of patients who have received these hips and over what period, how many have failed so far and how many patients have suffered symptoms of cobalt poisoning so far.

“All potentially affected patients should be contacted and their current health conditions assessed, with an option for hip replacement if necessary.”

Paul Whiteing, chief executive of patient safety charity Action Against Medical Accidents, said: “Patients need to have confidence that the regulators responsible for licensing these products are satisfied with their safety and that when they arise concerns there are effective mechanisms to contact the affected patients and, without alarming them, draw their attention to the symptoms that may arise and what to do if they do”.