Nurses and dentists performing cosmetic injectable procedures will be subject to sweeping new guidelines in a bid to better protect patient from practitioners putting profits ahead of safety. The health practitioner regulator released a range of changes today the latest in a raft of crackdowns on the surging multi-billion-dollar industry.
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00:00So, we already have guidelines in place for doctors who are working in this industry.
00:06So these new announcements bring nurses and dentists who can also do cosmetic injectable
00:11type work into line with doctors.
00:13So a lot of practices are actually run by nurses who do the injecting and what has happened
00:20is that the regulators around the country, both state and federal, have been looking
00:23at this practice a little bit more closely and seeing that some nurse practitioners are
00:28using telehealth consultations, where doctors then prescribe these products that they inject
00:34like Botox or fillers, and that there's a bit of concern over whether or not there is
00:39appropriate oversight of that process and who's responsible.
00:43So if a doctor sees someone over telehealth briefly, then the nurse injects who has that
00:47ongoing care.
00:48So these guidelines are designed to make it clearer that it is the person who prescribes
00:54the medication as well as the nurse who needs to have additional training now under these
00:58rules in order to do those kinds of injectable procedures.
01:01I've been looking at this model of nurse-run clinics, especially in New South Wales and Queensland.
01:08Part of it is that if you go in for a consultation, it's much simpler if the nurse has in the clinic
01:14the kinds of products that will be injected into your face or wherever prior to the appointment.
01:19But because many of them aren't authorised to prescribe medication, they're not actually
01:24allowed to hold it on consignment for then that doctor to do that telehealth consultation.
01:29So that's where regulators have been saying, look, this isn't complying with the current
01:32regulations.
01:33And these guidelines are designed to make it much clearer that there needs to be greater
01:37oversight and more training before nurses can expand into this space.
01:41So there's a grace period, I guess, of a few months until September.
01:45So clinics around the country will be sort of looking at their processes and procedures
01:49and working out what they need to do to make sure that they're up to standard.
01:53And the regulator ARPA says they will be knocking on doors after that to ensure that all the
01:57rules are being followed.