Cosmetic Surgery & Beauty #73

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• A seven-day cooling off period before minor procedures
such as injectables for all under-18s and, when needed,
an evaluation by a registered psychologist, general
practitioner or psychiatrist.
• Medical practitioners must personally take responsibility
for post-operative patient care and ensure that there
are emergency facilities when they are using sedation,
anaesthesia or analgesia.
• For patients seeking minor procedures that involve the
use of Schedule 4 medications (such as injectables),
there must be a mandatory consultation with a medical
practitioner either in person or by video consultation.
• Medical practitioners must provide patients with detailed
written information about costs.
How will these changes
affect you?
One of the main points that will affect
prospective patients are the coolingoff
periods. The guidelines provide
a nationally consistent approach
to cooling off periods. They prescribe
a seven-day cooling-off period for all
adults before major procedures (such
as surgery) and a three-month coolingoff
period before major procedures for
all patients under 18 and a mandatory
evaluation by a registered psychologist,
general practitioner or psychiatrist.
The guidelines also introduce a
seven-day cooling-off period before
minor procedures (including cosmetic
injectables) for all under 18s, and
when clinically indicated, evaluation
by a registered psychologist, general
practitioner or psychiatrist.
Associate Professor Stephen
Bradshaw from the Medical Board of
Australia explains, ‘This cooling-off period gives people
some time to consider the procedure. These are sometimes
very major procedures that can be body- and life-altering,
so there is a wide concern that some patients were going
into procedures without knowing the risks, especially
younger people.’
‘Another major concern was that there was no
psychological base and that some people may not have the
maturity needed to make an informed decision,’ he says.
‘We’re not preventing people under the age of 18 from
having cosmetic surgery; we just want to make sure that
they make the right decision. So it’s not about preventing,
it’s about supporting people through it to make sure it’s the
right thing to do.’
The guidelines also prohibit medical practitioners from
providing or offering financial inducements, either to
patients or agents, and prohibit finance schemes being
offered to patients (such as loans or third-party payment
arrangements).
‘We don’t encourage or believe people should take thirdparty
finance arrangements. It’s fine to do it by credit card
and it’s fine to say you can pay in instalments, but finance
companies are not advisable and such an arrangement
would not comply with the guidelines,’ says Dr Bradshaw.
‘We are also concerned that some patients were putting
quite large deposits down even before they decided to go
ahead. Patients shouldn’t be putting down any deposits
until after that cooling-off period.
Nothing should be paid for until the
The new
guidelines are
aimed to help
keep patients
safe, without
imposing an
unreasonable
regulatory
burden on
practitioners
patient comes back and says, ‘I’ve
been to my psychiatrist or I’ve been
to my GP and we’ve discussed it
and I’m still keen to have procedure
X’,’ he says.
Another important aspect of
the guidelines is the requirement
for face-to-face consultations
for doctors prescribing cosmetic
injectables. ‘Consultations can
be done by Skype or video – but
it still needs to be a face-to-face
consultation. It can’t just be a phone
call, etc,’ says Dr Bradshaw.
Patients will benefit particularly
from the improved informed consent
provisions. Cosmetic medicine and
surgery are almost always selfreferred,
and there is a greater need
for the stronger informed consent
guidelines announced by the
Medical Board of Australia.
Although cosmetic injectables have become more
common, people should not forget that they are still medical
procedures that require supervision from a qualified medical
practitioner in a safe environment and medical protocols
need to be followed.
Overall, the new guidelines are aimed to help keep
patients safe, without imposing an unreasonable regulatory
burden on practitioners. csbm
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