The long awaited Keogh Review into the cosmetic surgery industry has been published this week. The review was commissioned in the wake of the PIP scandal but has uncovered a plethora of “dodgy” practices within cosmetic intervention procedures.
The review stated that cosmetic surgery has become “trivialised” and it also attacked “distasteful” companies for putting profit ahead of care. Here at Thompsons I am starting to deal with more and more cases as a result of not only botched cosmetic surgery but also botched beauty treatments. It came as no surprise to me that a victim of poorly administered dermal fillers described their regulation as akin to the regulation of a toothbrush.
Although Botox and breast implants are classified as medical devices and are therefore regulated, fillers are deemed to have no medical purpose so are not subject to any regulation. However this should hopefully change over the next couple of years if recommendations within the review come into play. However it will not happen overnight and in the meantime, everyone should approach cosmetic surgery with a great deal of caution. There are a lot of good surgeons out there but unfortunately due to a lack of regulation there are also a lot of rogue traders looking to cash in on this burgeoning industry,
Sir Bruce Keogh stated that “The most striking thing is that anybody, anywhere, anytime can give a filler to anybody else, and that is bizarre.”
