Review of the regulation of Cosmetic Intervention

In an industry as heavily regulated as healthcare, it was remarkable that the excesses and faults of the cosmetic interventions sector were so long ignored. Until, that is, the PIP Implant fraud brought angry women to the door of the former Secretary of State for Health, and he set the talented professional Professor Sir Bruce Keogh (with others) to unearth the truth, which he did in a criticising report last April. He revealed this sector of the healthcare industry to be in professional disarray – characterised by Dr Dan Poulter MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Health in his response as murky practices of a cosmetic industry rapidly expanding’. To paraphrase the NHS Medical Director, he told the industry to get professional and do for cosmetic interventions what you do for other medical interventions; the patient must be king, not profit. Tell your patients the truth, and care for them properly. He also called the industry a datafree zone.