Clamp-down on new cosmetic surgeons

Neophyte cosmetic surgeons will have to reveal their inexperience to patients before wielding the knife under a new set of disclosure guidelines released Friday.

The Australasian College of Cosmetic Surgery (ACCS), which has 180 members, has introduced a mandatory patient disclosure system, under which its members must inform patients if they have performed a particular procedure less than 100 times.

ACCS president Daniel Fleming said many patients felt uncomfortable about asking cosmetic surgeons about their experience and the mandatory guidelines would increase patient protection.

"We think the experience of a doctor in performing a procedure is one of the important factors that patients need to weigh up when choosing their practitioner," he said.

ACCS members who fail to comply with the mandatory disclosure rules would face disciplinary action but Dr Fleming conceded the college would have to rely on patient complaints to detect whether a surgeon was failing to comply.

The ACCS currently has an application before the Australian Medical Council to recognise cosmetic surgery as a speciality. Plastic surgery is already accredited by the medical council as a speciality.
Australian College of Plastic Surgeons (ACPS) president Howard Webster said the ACPS welcomed the ACCS' move but emphasised the cosmetic surgeons' group does not require its members to have specialist surgical training. "We welcome their efforts to improve patient safety outcomes but the reality is that this is a body which has members that are general practitioners," he said. "They do not have doctors who have specialist registration and they are not
accredited as a provider of specialist surgical training."