London 8 June 2015, 6.15am: This morning I was featured talking about Safety in Beauty and Cosmetic Surgery on Sky News ‘Sunrise’ with Eamon Holmes.
The interview included my thoughts on the new GMC guidelines which include the recommendations for surgical provers to:
Be open and honest with patients and not trivialise the risks involved.
Give patients enough time and information before they decide whether to have a cosmetic procedure and allow them time to ‘cool off’.
Ask patients to tell them how they have been affected by a cosmetic procedure, both physically and psychologically, and check whether they are satisfied with the outcome.
Take particular care when working with children and young people – they should not target people under 18 through their marketing and they should seek additional advice from professionals whose expertise is in treating young people.
Seek their patient’s consent themselves rather than delegate it.
Market their services responsibly; they should not make unjustifiable claims about the results they can achieve and they should not use promotional tactics
It will be interesting to chart the progress on whether these new guidelines make a real difference to patient safety. The campaign and myself will be watching carefully.
Antonia Mariconda
