Federal Health Minister Mark Butler has acted swiftly to “amend the law so that anyone conducting a cosmetic procedure must be properly qualified”.
The day after the September 1 release of the final report from the ‘Independent Review of the regulation of medical practitioners who perform cosmetic surgery’, Butler told The Sydney Morning Herald “urgent action was needed to clean up the booming cosmetic surgery field”.
In what the SMH described as “the biggest crackdown on the $1.4 billion industry”, Butler met state government health ministers and gained immediate agreement for “sweeping changes focusing on who can call themselves a cosmetic surgeon, limiting surgery to accredited facilities and introducing new hygiene and safety standards”.
Butler emphasised the work to implement the reforms “would begin immediately” and declared: “I’m really glad the health ministers unanimously agreed to rake decisive action to clean up the cowboys in the industry.
“These cosmetic cowboys have been riding unchecked for years, and the previous government simply didn’t act to clean up an industry that has come to resemble the Wild West.”
Butler noted that as well as the health ministers all agreeing to adopt the 16 formal recommendations from the Independent Review, they would also “fast-track a hotline for victims of botched cosmetic surgery” from Monday September 5.
Butler added the ministers also “tasked the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Healthcare (which sets standards for accredited hospitals) to create specific safety and hygiene standards for cosmetic surgery practices and limit surgery to properly accredited facilities”.
Butler summed up: “Australians deserve to have confidence in the safety and quality of the cosmetic surgery industry and these changes will provide that.”
He “thanked the brave women and men who had spoken up to expose the rogue doctors” and said “this has been crucial in finally bringing much-needed action”. AMP
