Hundreds of unregulated botox clinics in Scotland fail to register with watchdog ahead of crackdown
INVESTIGATION
BY JUDITH DUFFY
HUNDREDS of private clinics carrying out cosmetic procedures such as Botox injections, lip fillers and teeth whitening in Scotland are still to register with the industry watchdog just weeks before a new crackdown on the profession comes into effect.
However, the new regulations, which come into force next month, will only apply to clinics run by doctors, dentists and nurses and will not include services offered by non-healthcare professionals such as beauticians and hairdressers.
From April, any healthcare professional who operates a clinic offering non-surgical cosmetic treatments will be committing an offence if they fail to register with Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS). The penalties include a fine of up to £5,000 and up to three months’ imprisonment. According to HIS just over half of the estimated 500 clinics which fall into this category have applied since the regulation process got underway last year.
There are concerns that far tougher measures are required to improve standards in the industry. Anyone can still carry out non-cosmetic procedures such as Botox injections and dermal fillers – often used to plump up lips – without having any kind of medical training.
The Scottish government has now set up an group to look at how to regulate non-healthcare professionals in the cosmetic industry, such as hairdressers and beauticians, as the next phase of the regulation process.
Dr Simon Ravichandran, who runs Glasgow-based clinic Clinetix and is a founder member of the Association of Scottish Aesthetic Practitioners (ASAP), pointed out that doctors, dentists and nurses who now have to register their clinics are already accountable to their own professional governing bodies.
But he added: “Absolutely anyone can buy a dermal filler to inject into people. We have seen the general public start to accept these procedures as beauty treatments rather than medical treatments. They don’t really understand when they go to a beauty therapist, for instance, these people are not really fully equipped to do the correct assessment, do the treatment as well as they could and deal with anything that might happen. This is a problem.”
Ravichandran, who yesterday launched The Aesthetic Training Academy in Glasgow, the first purpose-built facility in Scotland to train health professionals in a range of non-surgical cosmetic procedures, said regulation would result in some practitioners leaving the industry. “The people who are left are actually going to be committed to doing it as a sub-speciality in medicine – that is really what it is. The n regulatory process that HIS is introducing is really going to help improve standards.”
Private hospitals offering surgical cosmetic procedures such as breast implants, facelifts and liposuction, have been regulated by HIS for the past six years.
According to figures published by the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS) earlier this month, the number of cosmetic operations across the UK dropped by 40 per cent in 2016 – the lowest in nearly a decade.
The organisation, which represents consultant plastic surgeons in private practice, said that anecdotally non-surgical treatments such as Botox and dermal fillers were on the increase. But it also warned this sector was rife with “lax regulation and maverick behaviour”.
Ken Stewart, consultant plastic surgeon and member of BAAPS, welcomed the Scottish government’s moves to start the process of regulation – but said it did not go far enough. He said: “Registering clinics is one thing – but registering individual practitioners within the clinics is important and strictly regulating what clinics can and can’t do is also important.”
Frances Turner Traill, who has run a skin clinic for 10 years and is a board member for the British Association of Cosmetic Nurses, said registering of clinics run by healthcare professionals was a “great step forward”, but there was concern it was just “regulating the regulated”.
The regulation of independent clinics was introduced as a result of recommendations by the Scottish Cosmetic Interventions Expert Group, which was set up by ministers in 2014 to examine how to regulate the cosmetic industry. A Scottish government spokesman said a group had now been set up for phase two, which will investigate the work of non-healthcare professionals.