Dr Ayham Al-Ayoubi welcomes the new proposal by the Department of Health to broaden the types of providers registered with them that they can inspect and rate.
Under this new proposal cosmetic surgery clinics that fail to reach the necessary standards will be ‘named and shamed’.
Private hospitals, care homes, different types of community adult social care and general practices are all rated already by the department of health’s; Care Quality Commission, so they are now proposing that they begin to rate service providers that they already currently inspect but do not rate.
Cosmetic surgery providers are one of these along with independent ambulance and dialysis services, termination of pregnancy services and substances misuse centres.
The introduction of this system into cosmetic practices will help to improve the standards of care and it will allow patients to be able to make informed decisions about who they choose to trust with their care.
The ratings will improve the safety and efficacy of cosmetic practices by dividing the care and standards into four categories:
• Outstanding
• Good
• Requires Improvement
• Inadequate
This system will help to clamp down on any unprofessional clinics offering poor standards of care. This in conjunction with the new Professional Standards for Cosmetic Surgery will help to improve the cosmetic industry and make it safer for patients.
Dr Ayham Al-Ayoubi: We welcome the introduction of this new proposal. Regulations in the cosmetic industry have been extremely lenient and there is an urgent need to stop the amount of unqualified professionals that are performing cosmetic procedures.
However, the ratings will apply mostly to the clinics rather than the clinicians themselves so patients still need to be extremely cautious when choosing a surgeon. The results of this system will develop a culture in the cosmetic industry whereby if mistakes are made they are acted upon and protocols are put into place to prevent them from reoccurring.
