Botox being injected by ‘practitioners’ with less than half a day’s training

This article appeared in the Daily Mail earlier today. aesthetics are the first clinic in Hertfordshire to be registered with this scheme and were recognised in early June 2010. Visit botox herts for more information on our quality standards.

It is estimated one in 20 suffer from resulting complications from facial fillers

Botox administrators with less than half a day’s training are injecting patients’ faces with the muscle-paralysing poison.

Dozens of medicals firms are allowing employees to carry out this cosmetic treatment after learning to how to perform the procedure using an orange, the Independent Healthcare Advisory Service (IHAS) found.

And many trainers have no medical employment history or qualifications.

This lack of regulation is putting trusting clients at risk as many hairdressers and beauty therapists are storing Botulinum toxin at the wrong temperature and in unhygienic conditions, the IHAS said.

Approximately one million Britons have Botox or facial fillers injected each year.

It is estimated one in 20 suffer from resulting complications such as droopy eyelids from the former and lumps developing under the skin from the latter.

Actress Leslie Ash, famously suffered from a disfiguring ‘trout pout’ after liquid silicone was injected into her lips by a plastic surgeon at a friend’s house.

The silicone had set around the muscles in Leslie’s lips and it is now impossible for surgeons to remove it.

The IHAS have launched a new website that only lists medically qualified practitioners who are also injectable cosmetic providers, to help weed out cowboys in the industry.

So far, 156 clinical sites are registered on treatmentyoucantrust.co.uk and a further 113 are in the process of registering.

It is an industry-regulated website but is backed by the Government.

Surgeon Dr Andrew Vallance-Owen, Chairman of the IHAS Working Group, which developed the website, said: ‘Whilst there continue to be calls for full regulation from some within the industry, Treatments You Can Trust will give the public access to the best possible standard of care.

‘We are appalled by the sheer volume of bad practice within the industry but there is also a lot of good clinical practice and we are convinced that the great majority of providers are 100 per cent behind improving patient safety.’

He added: ‘One of the biggest issues within the industry is remote prescribing i.e. prescribing drugs like Botox without actually seeing the patient; it is unacceptable for a patient to not have a face-to-face consultation with the prescriber.

‘The Treatments You Can Trust scheme is all about assuring best practice in these injectable cosmetic treatments.’

However, The British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons has warned that the new website makes no distinction between practitioners who have trained for six or more years and those who simply took a weekend course.

Consultant plastic surgeon and BAAPS President Nigel Mercer, said: ‘It is evident from the information circulated by the IHAS to the profession that the scheme is being used as a marketing tool, its regulation appears rudimentary and their ‘Quality Mark’ is not recognised by the British Standards Institute or any other regulatory body.

‘It seems to be sold to the profession on the basis of marketing rather than patient safety. The unenforceable IHAS register seems to amount to State-sponsored marketing of cosmetic procedures, and that is not appropriate
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