SCOTS doctors have launched a bid to carry out the first face transplants in Britain.
The team at the Southern General Hospital in Glasgow say the service could cater for people from across the UK who have suffered major disfigurement due to injury or congenital conditions.
A paper on the proposals, provided by the hospitals' maxillofacial department, said there "may be merit in Scotland establishing its own face transplant service if the service could secure four referrals a year from the rest of the UK in addition to the one to two cases expected from Scotland".
However, the NHS's National Services Division has been asked to establish whether the health services in England, Wales and Northern Ireland would fund the procedures if clinicians could refer their patients north of the border.
The first face transplant took place in 2005.
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