Health practitioner regulator gets tough on cosmetic injectable industry to protect patient safety

ABC NEWS (Australia)

AHPRA is tightening guidelines for dentists and nurses performing cosmetic injectables. Further education and training for health practitioners will be required, and advertising changes will be implemented.

Transcript

00:00Now these are focused on other health practitioners who are not doctors because they've already

00:06got their own set of guidelines.

00:08This is more looking at nurses and dentists who provide non-surgical cosmetic procedures

00:12like injectable anti-wrinkle injections and fillers.

00:16Now nurses have been doing this for many many years but it's sort of been under an assumption

00:22that they're practicing within their scope of expertise.

00:25Now these guidelines make it very clear that if nurses want to expand into cosmetic injectables

00:32they need to undertake additional training.

00:34So they can't just complete their degree and become registered and then go straight into

00:38this.

00:39They'll need to be able to practice for 12 months full time prior to entering into this

00:43industry as well as doing additional training on top of that.

00:48So it's really put in place to protect the public from operators who don't have enough

00:52training to be safely performing these procedures.

00:56Okay so is this part of a broader crackdown by state and federal regulators?

01:00So what we've seen over the past few months is that state poisons and pharmaceutical regulators

01:06in Queensland and New South Wales are really taking a closer look at this industry.

01:11What's happened is that there's a range of nurse owned and lead practices that do cosmetic

01:16injectable services and they hold sometimes some of these schedule for products on site

01:22on consignment and then do telehealth consultations with doctors.

01:26Now this is for a matter of convenience.

01:28If you come in to have these injections you can have your consultation with a doctor because

01:32it needs to be prescribed.

01:33It's a schedule for medication.

01:35Do it over telehealth and then the nurse can administer the product.

01:38So what poisons regulators are now saying is that that practice is not legal, although

01:44it has been happening for some time and there needs to be greater oversight of this.

01:48There needs to either be a nurse practitioner who has special prescribing rights or a doctor

01:52on site to assist in this process.

01:55So there's been a range of actions interstate and also letters released from the TGA and from

02:01regulators to practices to sort of put them on notice that while this is the way the industry

02:05industry has been operating, this is subject to change and these new guidelines released

02:10today are sort of further evidence that regulators are taking this public safety issue quite seriously.

02:15What new guidelines are there for advertising?

02:18So the other thing the guidelines focus on is advertising, especially on social media.

02:22So there's a complete ban on testimonials and influencers who are sort of promoting these procedures.

02:29And there's also a crackdown to ensure that there's no advertising targeted at patients

02:34who are under 18, as well as a cooling off period for seven days for any patients under 18 wanting

02:40to undergo these procedures.

02:42And that's because authorities have really identified that this is an area where there's

02:47a real lack of compliance from clinics that are advertising broadly on social media and on

02:52their websites.

02:53And the TGA says it's issued around 100 guidance letters and has also put out around 12,000 takedown

03:00notices to social media platforms, around 1,500 of those related to cosmetic injectables and other

03:07services, saying that there are breaches of their guidelines there.

03:11So it's really a wide scale sort of industry clean up and that cosmetic providers are being

03:17put on notice that they're really going to have to be very careful about what they're

03:21doing publicly and also how they're treating patients to ensure that there is appropriate

03:26patient safety in this space.

03:27And how long do practitioners have to comply with this?

03:31So the guidelines come into effect from the 2nd of September this year.

03:35And AHPRA has said that they are, you know, understanding that this will mean some changes.

03:40It will mean that some people will have to leave the industry or will choose not to comply.

03:45And that they really have these couple of months to get their house in order.

03:48And after that, they will be very closely looking at everyone's operations and taking action

03:52where they believe it is appropriate.

03:54Elyse Worthington, our national health reporter.

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