The UK Wants to Remove Non –Surgical Specialists

A new outcry for regulation of the cosmetic surgery field has been put forth by the Royal College of Surgeons. This pocket of the medical community in the United Kingdom is outraged at the regulation, or lack thereof, in the cosmetic surgery field. The new system that the organization has requested would combat and police such practitioners from performing these treatments without a specialties license.

Under current rules a doctor only need a medical license to perform surgeries, which allows general practitioners to perform complex surgical procedures like nose jobs, without a specialty in the field.

The cosmetic surgery industry in the UK as a whole has been referred to as a “cowboy industry” for the lack of standards in qualifications for doctors performing cosmetic surgeries. The Royal College of Surgeons has now launched a consultation campaign on ways to clean up the ‘shoot from the hip’ practices of the cosmetic surgical fields. Some of those suggestions speak to the point of asking doctors to submit to a surgical specialty certification which would be listed in a registry accessible to the public, so that they may be better informed on the qualifications of their doctor. The caveat? The system would be voluntary.

All of this comes on the heels of the intense scrutiny the industry has been under since it was discovered that thousands of women were fitted with sub-standard breast implants made by French company Poly Implant Prothese.

Many of the organizations like the Royal College of Surgeons and the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons say that these requests and suggestions are steps in the right direction, but they should be made mandatory in order to be used effectively. 

“We really need it to be mandatory; we need every plastic surgeon and cosmetic surgeon to be involved in it and be regulated and certified,” says Gary Ross, a consultant cosmetic and plastic surgeon.