BBC News Royal College of Surgeons and Cosmetic Treatment Guidelines

In a recent BBC news report The Royal College of Surgeons issued guidelines for non surgical/medical aesthetics treatments. These are guidelines for surgeons and not industry regulations. The non surgical industry is still unregulated in the UK although many medical professionals such as doctors, dentists and nurses will have strict guidelines when providing these elective treatments and some organisations are looking at re-validation and assessment for medical professionals who provide non surgical cosmetic treatments to ensure best practice and patient safety.

Medical professionals also need to update their skills and knowledge with CPD or CME approved courses.

Medical or Aesthetic

Is it medicine or cosmetic/aesthetic and who should provide non surgical/cosmetic treatments/aesthetic medicine/medical aesthetics?

as you see from above the medical aesthetics industry has multiple definitions and descriptions depending on who you talk to.

Is it cosmetic or medical?

If you ask the HMRC they will tell you that botulinum toxins for cosmetic treatments and training are cosmetic and beauty associated not medical which I can see their point it is an elective not essential treatment and cosmetic treatments are vatable and medical treatments are not.

If you speak to most training companies they will only train doctors, dentists and nurses to administer these treatments as you need to be a medical professional to ensure best practice and the skills to deal with adverse reactions.

The products used are medical devices or prescription only medicines, dermal fillers are injectable medical devices and botulinum toxins are prescription only medicines which have strict guidelines when sourcing the products and administering the treatments plus they are only distributed by select pharmacies and distributors.

Indemnity insurance is a legal requirement for any individual who provides these treatments.

So we do have some level of self regulation by many of the established medical aesthetics service providers and this has been instrumental in the improved public perception of medical aesthetics over the past few years.

Medical Aesthetics and Non Medical Practitioners

We receive many calls from beauty therapists and other non medical specialists who wish to attend our botox training and dermal filler courses, KT Training do not provide botox training, or any non surgical courses to non medicals and some of the reasons for this are mentioned previously. We still hear stories of people with no medical background providing these treatments.

There are courses available for beauty therapists (subject to completion of pre training criteria and insurance approval) who are NVQ3 and these include superficial chemical peels, Laser hair removal training and derma roller courses.

How do non medicals get insured, source the products, and are consumers happy with the treatments provided and how do they deal with any complications associated with injectables?

Will industry regulations change this?

Some of the organisations that regulate medical professionals and medical treatments include the GMC guideline for cosmetic doctors, GDC guidelines for cosmetic dentists, NMC guidance for cosmetic nurses, Care Quality Commission, EU Non Surgical Regulations updates, MRHA, DoH and IHAS(IHAS voluntary register for cosmetic treatment providers).

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