British cosmetic surgery an unregulated mess, leading doctors warn(2)

Harvey Marcovitch, the editor of Clinical Risk and a chairman of fitness-to-practise panels for the General Medical Council, said that any advertising that was an inducement to seek treatment should be illegal.

He suggested a ban on all clinic advertising, with any individual surgeon wishing to highlight their services subject to the strict rules of the GMC.

There can be no area of medicine where patients in the UK are more in need of protection, Mr Marcovitch said, describing the sector as an absolute minefield.

We need tight control of advertising of cosmetic surgery including internet advertising. We need proper regulation of the industry and we need both surgeons and GPs to manage patient expectation.

In France there is a total ban on all forms of publicity and advertising of cosmetic surgery, although doctors admitted that it had proved very difficult to enforce with the internet and the willingness of patients to travel abroad for surgery.

Alain Fogli, a French plastic surgeon and another contributor to the journal, said that in France surgical procedures could be undertaken only by surgeons who were registered specialists. In the UK the possession of a general medical degree is sufficient.

In a further paper on minimising risk, Foad Nahai, who is the president of the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, observes that regulations governing the training of all cosmetic surgeons are sorely needed.

Governments are reluctant to become involved, as they see this issue as a turf battle between various physician groups and not a public safety or patient safety issue, he writes.

However, there is no question that this is a patient safety issue of paramount importance and I take our governments to task for not addressing it.