Surgeons condemn "appalling" lack of action on cosmetic surgery regulation

The Keogh report was commissioned in response to the PIP implant scandal, but plastic surgeons say the government has failed to comply with via on its suggestions. Photograph: Anne-Christine Poujoulat/AFP/Getty Images

Cosmetic surgical procedure will proceed to be the wild west of medicine, say expert bodies, simply because of the government’s failure to deliver in the controls advisable by its own NHS healthcare director.

Plastic surgeons say they are appalled by the government’s response, which stops short of the regulation recommended by Sir Bruce Keogh’s report into cosmetic surgery. It does not clamp down heavily on the use of dermal fillers – substances injected underneath the skin, typically to plump out the encounter. Nor does it need that anybody concerned in cosmetic procedures is appropriately trained, certified and registered.

“Frankly, we are no significantly less than appalled at the lack of action taken – this review, not the initial one particular conducted into the sector, represents but an additional totally wasted possibility to make sure patient security,” explained Rajiv Grover, president of the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons.

“With all the proof supplied by the clinical neighborhood, picking not to reclassify fillers as medicines with immediate impact or setting up any variety of compulsory register beggars belief. Legislators have obviously been paying out only lip services to the sector’s dire warnings that dermal fillers are a crisis waiting to take place.

“Most shockingly of all, the truth that there is no necessity for the real surgeon concerned to acquire consent for the procedure helps make a mockery of the total method. It truly is business as normal in the wild west and the message from the government is clear: roll up and come to feel totally free to have a stab.”

The Royal School of Surgeons will play a central role in determining what level of training and qualification cosmetic surgeons must have, but its remit does not lengthen to other healthcare professionals, this kind of as GPs, dentists and nurses who might be concerned in cosmetic procedures.

The problem that appeared to workout the Keogh overview most was the use of dermal fillers. “A man or woman possessing a non-surgical cosmetic intervention has no much more safety and redress than a person buying a ballpoint pen or a toothbrush,” mentioned the report. “Dermal fillers are a particular lead to for concern as anybody can set themselves up as a practitioner, with no necessity for understanding, education or preceding knowledge. Nor are there adequate checks in area with regard to merchandise high quality – most dermal fillers have no more controls than a bottle of floor cleaner. It is our see that dermal fillers are a crisis waiting to happen.”

Nevertheless, dermal fillers will not be classified as medicines, in spite of Keogh’s recommendation, and there will not be a statutory register of sufferers who have obtained them, nor of people who administer cosmetic procedures.

Plastic surgeons complain that the government has also been unwilling to use compulsion in its register of breast implants, following the PIP scandal – exactly where females were given implants filled with industrial silicone. It set up a voluntary register, but the surgeons say that has not worked in the previous and will not yet again.

The patient safety charity Action Against Medical Accidents said the response from the government was too small, also late. AvMA’s chief executive, Peter Walsh, explained it welcomed the truth that the government was taking the troubles critically. “Nonetheless, we have witnessed as well numerous men and women harmed by rogues in this industry currently. We are disappointed not to see all suppliers of cosmetic treatment possessing to register and be regulated by the Care Quality Commission, or a correct compensation scheme created for victims of the business. The government had promised its response by final summertime and Sir Liam Donaldson’s report in 2005 was ignored. We require to see action not words now. Overall, this is a situation of too little, also late,” he stated.

Surgeons condemn "appalling" lack of action on cosmetic surgery regulation