05 May New GMC guidelines
The General Medical Council (GMC) recently issued new guidance to aesthetic practitioners
The standards are outlined in guidance for doctors who offer cosmetic interventions. The guidelines relate to patient consultations, giving patients time to reflect, and responsible advertising.
At River Aesthetics we welcome these new guidelines, as they help to create a safer industry centred around you, the patient. We already teach these best practices to delegates on our training courses and these guidelines help us to enforce the importance of patient care in aesthetics.
These new standards come into effect on Wednesday 1 June 2016 for all GMC members.
The 7 essentials when providing cosmetic procedures
The GMC guidelines state that anyone providing cosmetic procedures must put into practice the following standards.
1. Seek our patient’s consent ourselves
It is our responsibility, as your treating doctors, to discuss cosmetic procedures with you, making sure you have all the information you need to make an informed decision.
This must never be delegated to a third party.
2. Give patients time for reflection
We must make sure our patients have time to consider the information about the risks and possible outcomes of a procedure, so they can decide whether or not to go ahead with it.
3. Consider each patient’s psychological needs
We must consider any patient’s vulnerabilities when discussing cosmetic interventions, and make sure we are satisfied that their request for the procedure is voluntary.
4. Work within our competence
If we feel we cannot safely meet your needs, then we must ask for advice or refer you – the patient – to a colleague. As cosmetic practitioners, we must recognise our own limits.
Charlotte and I have an advantage here, in that we are able to consult with each other.
5. Make sure our patients have the information they want or need
This includes written information to support continuity of care, which explains the medicines or implants used.
6. Take particular care if considering cosmetic procedures for children
We must not perform a cosmetic intervention on a child or young person unless we judge for ourselves that they want it – even if the parent has given their consent.
7. Market our services responsibly
We are no longer able to use promotional tactics that might risk encouraging you, as our patients, to make ill-considered decisions.
We are unable to offer discounts to treatments or offer free treatments as incentives. It is also now considered bad practice to offer cosmetic procedures as prizes.
Charlotte and I are currently in liaison with the GMC regarding our current loyalty scheme and will inform you of the outcome as soon as possible.
You can find more information about the new guidelines for doctors who offer cosmetic interventions on the GMC website: click here for the GMC website
