Cosmetic surgery crackdown: New cooling off
period
Australia's
booming cosmetic surgery industry will undergo a major crackdown, with the
Medical Board introducing tough new guidelines for doctors.
Children
planning major cosmetic surgery will be subject to a three-month cooling off
period and must pass an independent mental health check under new national
standards.
The
Medical Board of Australia will on Monday release new guidelines for doctors
performing all cosmetic procedures, from anti-ageing injections to full body
makeovers.
They
require a seven-day cooling off period for adults before major procedures, and
impose a mandatory requirement that doctors prescribing anti-ageing injections
and dermal fillers see the patient – at least by video – before doing so.
Joanna
Flynn, chairwoman of the medical board, said the public guidelines should send
the message that all surgery is serious and requires proper consideration by
patients.
"Ultimately
our job is to protect patients and we are aware that some patients are harmed
by cosmetic procedures and we want to reduce that risk," Dr Flynn
said.
"We
want to do it in a way that doesn't absolutely restrict patients' rights, but
to make sure that the doctors' responsibilities are very clear."
The
guidelines add to national regulations governing all Australian doctors and
have come after draft guidelines were opened to public consultation last year.
After a
reaction from nurses, who administer injections, and their patients during the
consultation the board allowed the face-to-face consultations with a doctor to
be done by video conference but not by telephone alone.
Patients
must also be given detailed written information about the costs of procedures,
and doctors who perform them must take "explicit responsibility" for
their care after the surgery and make sure emergency medical facilities are
available during it.
The
independent evaluations on a patient before they undergo major cosmetic surgery
are also mandatory for adults and can be done by a psychologist, psychiatrist
or general practitioner.
Doctors
who flout the rules will be subject to disciplinary action and can be stripped
of their licence to practise medicine.
"Once
the standards are explicit, if a doctor fails to meet them they can be called
to account for that, [and] asked to explain why they have failed to meet those
standards," Dr Flynn said.
The board
also made recommendations on areas of concern within the increasingly
competitive cosmetics sector that they had no power to regulate.
These
included strengthening the regulation of private cosmetics facilities,
including their use of sedatives and anaesthesia and dealing with regulatory
inconsistencies between jurisdictions.
The
guidelines take effect on October 1 and will be reviewed every three years.
Rania
Spooner
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