Over the last 20 years, Australia has witnessed a huge increase in the popularity and usage of injectable treatments to treat facial wrinkles, furrows, ‘hollows’ and volume loss, or to simply enhance and beautify specific facial areas such as cheekbones, chins, and lips.
As a result more and more doctors, and numerous nurses, have entered the field. While nurses are admirable professionals in their own field, they do not have the intimate knowledge of facial anatomy that a well-trained and experienced doctor has.
Accordingly, with the aim of delivering the very best possible results for every patient, we only have well-trained and highly experienced Cosmetic Doctors injecting our patients.
Moreover, patients should be aware that it is illegal for any Nurse to inject a Schedule 4 product unless:
- You have been first consulted by a doctor of that practice. Skype consultations are being used by some Nurse Injectors to circumvent the regulations but they are not an acceptable substitute for a face-to-face assessment by the doctor in person.
- The doctor has first issued written orders or a prescription permitting the nurse to inject you with such S4 products.
As a case in point, in July 2014, The NSW Health Care Complaints Commission (HCCC) successfully prosecuted a Nurse over the inappropriate use of Anti-Wrinkle Injections and Dermal Fillers in breach of the Poisons and Therapeutic Goods Act 1966 (NSW) (PTGA) and the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law (National Law).
The HCCC found that the nurse entered into an arrangement with a doctor who ordered supplies of Anti-Wrinkle Injections and Dermal Fillers which the Nurse then administered to patients at the medical practitioner’s surgery. In contravention of the PTGA, the nurse administered such restricted S4 substances to patients in the absence of any consultation, review, or prior assessment of the patients by the said medical practitioner, without prescriptions or written orders from the medical practitioner, nor under any supervision by the medical practitioner.
The HCCC finding is available at:
