Regulation of Health Practitioners in Cosmetic Surgery – Independent Review to the Medical Board of Australia and Ahpra.
The AMA supports policy and regulatory settings that deliver the best patient safety and health outcomes, and that foster a landscape of trust in Australia’s medical practitioners, who are some of the best trained in the world.
This is why we support quality regulation and oversight of medical practice in Australia.
Unfortunately, the issue of a small minority of practitioners performing “cosmetic surgery” unsafely has consistently undermined both patient safety and trust in medical practitioners.
In its submission to this Review, the AMA supports a regulatory approach that provides certainty to patients and practitioners alike including:
• Further exploration of the establishment of an endorsement in cosmetic surgery for medical practitioners who are not plastic surgeons;
• New information being provided to consumers – if Health Ministers decide to restrict the access to the use of the titles of surgeon and cosmetic surgeon; and
• Better collection of data and information about cosmetic surgery in Australia to inform policy, regulation and research.
The AMA is also concerned that many consumers are likely to conclude that all practitioners currently using the title “cosmetic surgeon” will have successfully completed a significant program of post-graduate surgical training. Therefore the AMA argues in this submission, as well as in a separate review currently being undertaken for Health Ministers, that restricting the title of “surgeon” will go some way towards providing increased understanding of the qualifications of any practitioner who performs surgical procedures.
