BAPRAS response to draft European Standard in Aesthetic Surgery Servcices

2nd May 2012

 

BAPRAS has reviewed the draft EU guidance on aesthetic surgery standards and critically appraised it. If our suggestions are followed then this document is a welcome addition to the development of standards in aesthetic surgery and medicine provision across Europe. It delivers a very clear standard for service providers to adhere to, with much detail surrounding facilities and mandatory requirements for safe procedures.

However, as this document stands, there are significant areas in which it does not address important matters that are essential in the provision of the highest standards of care.

Firstly, the Association would like to draw attention to our concern that surgical training requirements are set at the lowest acceptable level in the document – we constantly strive for the highest standards. The training of an expert cosmetic surgeon takes far longer than indicated, and much greater clarity is offered through the UK Royal Colleges Joint Committee of Surgical training (JCST) syllabuses and curricula. BAPRAS suggests that there should be far greater emphasis on these more demanding requirements for training if the outcomes for cosmetic surgical procedures are to be delivered at a uniform level across the nation.

Secondly, outcomes from procedures are not discussed in any meaningful way by the document, and the final section, which suggests that patients should be offered a mandatory questionnaire on their experiences, is weak. Far more mandatory emphasis on outcome evaluation and reporting should be mandated in a well regulated system, without which there is no feasible mechanism for standards to be raised or maintained. 

Finally, the code of ethics regarding advertising and promotion is satisfactory to a point, but BAPRAS is developing its own code of Practice with a more thorough and detailed description of the highest standards that members of our association are expected to adhere to. BAPRAS hopes that these two codes might eventually reach convergence in the near future.

Tim Goodacre
Chair of the BAPRAS Professional Standards Committee

 

 

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