Cosmetic surgeons and doctors will be banned from remotely prescribing anti-ageing drugs like Botox over the phone or on the internet without seeing the patient face to face.
Botox is a potentially dangerous drug, and should only be prescribed by a doctor.
Cosmetic Surgeons are to be banned from administering anti-ageing drug Botox remotely
The General Medical Council (GMC) has said that new rules are to be established this week as a direct result of the undercover BBC investigation found one of the UK’s largest purchasers of Botox to be extensively engaged in ‘remote prescribing’. Niall Dickson, chief executive of the GMC, said “There are good reasons why these are prescription-only medicines and we believe doctors should assess any patient in person before issuing a prescription of this kind.”
Nurses are allowed to administer Botox to a patient, but they have to do so under the supervision of a doctor, or it has to be an extreme emergency. The BBC discovered one particular aesthetic doctor who had established a vast team of nurses from across the UK who would call him on his mobile phone to get authorisation to inject patients with Botox. The doctor in question would then charge £30 pounds for this service.
What was most alarming was that the doctor suggested that if the nurses were ever unable to reach him that they should go ahead and inject the drug anyway and he would phone later to confirm the ‘verbal prescription order’. The doctor was quoted as saying, “If you can’t get a signal, what you might do is do the treatment and then you ring through with the details and the phone number and we guarantee we’ll always ring the client afterwards. That may be after the event, which is a little bit naughty.”
While the doctor in question has been widely condemned in the medical community, he claims that he has performed over 50,000 of these remote consultations since 2005 and not once had he had any complications or adverse patient reaction.
At The Aura Clinic we never engage in the practise of remotely prescribing the anti-wrinkle drug Botox
But Sally Taber , director of the Independent Healthcare Advisory Service and the organisation Treatments You Can Trust said “This is wrong, it’s breaking the law and it’s not acceptable.”
At The Aura Clinic London we agree. Director and Lead Clinician Dr. Dayal Mukherjee said “We have never engaged in the practice of remote prescribing, and all of our doctors stringently follow GMC regulations pertaining to prescribing. Any prescription-only medicines like Botox are obtained and treatments performed only after a full face-to-face clinical consultation with the patient. We firmly stand by these basic principles of clinical safety. All our patients are treated by doctors, who are independently competent in making a decision to treat or prescribe. So the need for ‘remote prescribing’ never arises in our clinic”.
According to Dr. Mukherjee even injectable dermal fillers, although they are not prescription-only medicines, are also obtained on specific prescription and after consultation for each patient undergoing treatment.
“This is simply in accordance with good medical practice. “At The Aura Clinic London we make it our duty and priority to follow all regulations pertaining to prescribing, providing consultations prior to treatment, obtaining consent, and providing a high standard of overall clinical care.”
For more information give us a call on +44 (0) 203 398 1524 or email us at [email protected].