This is part 2 of the interview we took of Adrian Richards (Surgical Director of Aurora Clinics, and Founder of Cosmetic Courses) and Ron Myers (Director of the Consulting Room) discussing Dermal Filler regulations.
Transcript:
Can we just look a little bit Ron at the regulation of Dermal Fillers? In the UK we’re very unregulated compared to the rest of the world. Well we are and I think with Dermal Fillers they have never been regulated, lasers were regulated in England and since have been deregulated in 2010. There is a call for some form of regulation for both of those particular procedure and obviously toxins as well. At the moment I think people are unsure whether or not it should be coming back through the CQC or whether it should be handled like it is in London by some of the local Boroughs that regulate currently for lasers and light procedures but don’t look at the injectable side of things. Personally we run a clinic that’s run by the CQC and if we look at the CQC and the faith in that as an organisation now as well with problems that we’ve had for instance in Staffordshire Hospital, where clearly even in regulated hospitals where you have inspectors go in, there is clearly some evidence of failing there and if that’s CQC itself as an organisation being looked at internally well.. So for me I think the critical aspects really relate more to the people that are allowed to handle these products so in other words, debate about who should and shouldn’t do these treatments and also clearly the training requirements and having some form of competence and based on that where possible.
And what does this mean for people in the industry?
This is recommendation from discussion documents isn’t it. Well it is at the moment I think really this committee have come in with an open mind and what they’re doing is obviously looking at different parties involved, whether it’s the consumer or the supplier or the clinic and trying to gather evidence as you say, they are now going and are looking at further detail from selected people and especially people they have actually pitched in with ideas and want to comment and they’re going to summarise and this is going to come out potentially with recommendations in spring. At this stage obviously we’ve had the interim report and the formal report, we’re waiting for that later in the year so I think that we agree with the principles of the interim report but I think we just have to wait a little bit to find out what the full report says later in the year. That’s it, whether it will be enforced or not and exactly what will come out, I don’t think anyone really knows and parallel running to this is the European side of things that this has said and just looking at cosmetic surgery from a European regulation perspective and this is something that’s a totally different route of looking at regulation, but I think probably more so they are concentrating on the aspects of really who can and can’t do what. Who can do treatments is much more regulated in Europe in France and in Germany isn’t it Ron? Can you just talk us through some of the regulation issues and who’s allowed to do the treatments in Europe? Well it is and I think it’s a big area to debate about I think particularly outside of cosmetic surgery where I think it’s probably clearer and certainly here where we have the specialist register where I know there are people who have a certain angle on that as well and say well just because you’re on the specialist register, doesn’t mean to say that you can perform all cosmetic surgical procedures but outside of that I think the key area of concern from my perspective in the non-surgical side is looking at this medical vs non-medical specialties being involved in the injectable side of things. The interesting thing looking at this was that it appeared to be very split when they looked at the Dermal Filler argument and Botulinum Toxin to whether or not non-medical or medical people should be involved.
Absolutely
So clearly the really principally the beauty therapy side of things is and there lobbying front with BABTAC and other organisations within there are obviously trying to push the case forward for beauty therapists to be practically involved in dealing with injectable treatments.
Previous episode in the series:
Part 1 – The Keogh Report
Part 3 – PIP Implants
Part 4 – Counterfeit Toxins part 1
Part 5 – Counterfeit Toxins part 2
Part 6 – Hard selling
