'Serious injuries and avoidable deaths' resulting from lax laws around cosmetic surgery, doctors warn

Cosmetic surgery performed by under-qualified practitioners "remains an avoidable risk to the public", a former top medic has warned.

Sir Bruce Keogh, a former chief medical officer of the NHS in England, joined leading surgical and medical organisations to warn patients still face unnecessary risk.

They penned a letter to Health Secretary Yvette Cooper saying "nothing has changed" a year after the government announced it would regulate high-risk cosmetic procedures and 13 years after the Keogh review of cosmetic interventions, which called for reform.

The letter, led by the Royal College of Surgeons of England (RCS), warns there is a "serious regulatory gap in cosmetic surgery" whereby any doctor can perform cosmetic surgery.

This includes breast augmentation, rhinoplasty, facelifts, and liposuction - even if they are not recognised as a specialist surgeon.

The letter - signed by a number of royal colleges, specialist surgical associations, and patient safety organisations - says patients are expecting those carrying out these invasive procedures to be specialists in the field.

And while the authors welcome work to identify a so-called "red-list" of high-risk procedures, they insist it "will offer little protection if it remains lawful for practitioners without the necessary expertise to perform them".

They want such procedures to only be carried out by surgeons on the medical regulators' specialist register.

The letter reads: "Without this change, patients will continue to be misled into believing they are in safe hands, even when the law does not adequately protect them.

"Cosmetic surgery involves complex, invasive procedures, and the human cost of inadequate regulation is evident in serious injuries and avoidable deaths, including those following high-risk procedures such as Brazilian Butt Lifts.

"When cosmetic surgery goes wrong, patients may require extensive corrective treatment and ongoing care, often placing additional pressure on already stretched NHS services."

Sir Bruce said: "Thirteen years after the Independent Review of the Regulation of Cosmetic Interventions in 2013, complex cosmetic surgery performed by under-qualified practitioners remains an avoidable risk to the public that could be reduced by tighter regulation that recognises the risk of some cosmetic procedures."

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Professor Vivien Lees, spokeswoman on cosmetic surgery for RCS England, said: "Patients will rightly assume that anyone performing invasive cosmetic surgery has undergone the specialist surgical training and assessment required to carry out these complex procedures safely.

"The reality is that the law does not currently guarantee this. There is a clear consensus that this issue requires urgent regulation to protect patients.

"The government should publish its consultation without further delay and take action to ensure that high-risk cosmetic surgery is only carried out by appropriately-trained specialist surgeons, giving patients the confidence they deserve."

The Department of Health and Social Care has been approached for comment.

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