They are launching an internet company, mybreast.org, which aims to make the best quality breast surgery available to less affluent women.

The doctors claim their venture is not simply commercial, but will benefit clients who might otherwise be tempted by cut-price deals with under-qualified surgeons in Britain or abroad.

But the move has been criticised for encouraging vulnerable women to have expensive operations for non-medical reasons.

The surgeons have cut charges from £7,000 to £4,250 by concentrating solely on breast augmentation, the most popular cosmetic procedure, which is undertaken by 26,000 British women a year.

Among the founders are Peter Butler, a consultant at the Royal Free hospital in north London — best known for his plans to carry out the world’s first full face transplant — and Norman Waterhouse, a former president of the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons.

“For a large number of women, particularly young women, breast augmentation is very price-sensitive and, if you are a young woman working as a secretary, for example, then an extra £100 makes all the difference,” said Waterhouse. “We have been waving the quality flag for 15 years but women will choose to have a cheaper provider.

“Mybreast.org is a commercial provider — there is no question of that. However, we are trying to provide a very high quality service at the same price offered by the commercial clinics.”

Critics of the boom in cosmetic surgery, however, believe it often exploits women suffering from low self-confidence.

Research published last September in the American Journal of Epidemiology found women who have breast implants are at higher risk of suicide than the general population. The researchers, from Laval University in Quebec, concluded the implants were not to blame but said women who underwent enlargements were more likely to have low self-esteem and a lack of self-confidence and psychiatric illnesses.

Dr Eileen Bradbury, a consultant psychologist at the Alexandra hospital in Cheadle, Cheshire, and Harley Street in central London, said: “Women who have breast enlargement are a more vulnerable population.

“Any procedure that encourages women to have breast augmentation when they are vaguely thinking about it, by making it easier and quicker, is riding roughshod over this vulnerability.

“There are a lot of potential problems, even in the best hands, and when they ‘pile them high, sell them cheap’ the chances of having a less than good technical result must be increased.”

Mybreast.org admits its all-inclusive surgery package will be “streamlined” compared with the “haute couture” treatment offered to women willing to pay £7,000 to be seen at more leisure by a consultant of their choice.

The company guarantees that all operations will be done by British-trained consultant plastic surgeons with specialist cosmetic surgery qualification from the Royal College of Surgeons. They all belong to the plastic surgery professional body.

The company is setting up a “breast academy” dedicated to the latest techniques. It will give a lingerie gift voucher to women who pay for breast enlargement.

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