Radio 4 hosts JCCP debate
Chair of the Joint Council for Cosmetic Practitioners (JCCP) Professor David Sines and aesthetic nurse prescriber Sue Ibrahim have appeared on the BBC Radio 4 consumer affairs show You & Yours to take part in a debate over the regulation of the aesthetics industry.
The debate centred around the inclusion of beauty therapists on the JCCP register and the backlash from doctors and nurses who are refusing to join for this reason.
Representing a group of 800 doctors, nurses and dentists who are campaigning against this and plan to set up their own association and register called The British Association of Aesthetics Nurses, Doctors and Dentists (BAANDD), Ibrahim, who is chair of the steering committee, argued that because beauty therapists cannot be struck off for malpractice like clinicians and do not belong to a body such as the GMC or NMC, it is a risk to public safety to allow them to join the register and administer injectables.
She said, “We have been calling for a long while for the UK government to produce mandatory legislation on this issue. They have thrown money at this voluntary register and we think the public are going to be put at risk.”
When asked whether in the absence of mandatory regulation, this was better than nothing, Ibrahim said, “The set of guidelines and standards that they [the JCCP] have adopted just don’t go far enough. That is why we are considering forming our own register.”
Professor David Sines responded saying, “The situation is quite simple. Legally, beauty therapists are not proscribed from being able to inject. By law they are able to inject. In 2013 Sir Bruce Keogh made it very clear that regulation was a requirement to protect the sector. By that he meant anyone who was practicing legally should be regulated and it’s as a result of that we have brought in very high standards, and I don’t agree with Sue about them falling short.
“Our standards state that the two most invasive procedures – the injectables such as botox and dermal fillers – as far as we’re concerned can only be administered under the supervision of a registered clinician. Botox is a prescribed form of medication and we’ve made it very clear in our standards that any beauty therapist that is administering such injections can only do so under the direct supervision of a clinical prescriber who must remain personally accountable for ensuring that person is proficient and safe in practice and is able to administer and oversee on a line of sight basis that procedure on the first instance.
“Until we change the legislative framework or the law to prohibit such practitioners then we must do our absolute best to regulate and bring people to account. The bottom line here is no beauty therapist is able to inject unless they have a clinician supporting them and prescribing that medication.”
Sines also said that with the registers the JCCP would begin to improve standards and prevent doctors and nurses providing medicines such as botox to beauty therapists remotely without having first seen the patient to assess them.
“Our supervision framework makes it very clear that [remote prescribing] is not only illegal, it’s unprofessional, so we’re actually starting to tighten up standards and restrict the way in which people practice to ensure we have greater safety.”
Ibrahim added that if BAANDD were to create their own register it would only be open to those on a mandatory professional register.
She added, “If we hear of any malpractice, then those doctors, dentists and nurses can be reported to their professional bodies and they could lose their licence to practice. There is no way that other non-healthcare professionals can be struck off.”
To listen to the debate click here