Ontario Doctors to Tighten Rules Overseeing Cosmetic Surgery
The Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons has issued a statement saying they are tightening their regulation that oversee the fast increase of the cosmetic surgery industry in the area.
The board of directors from this medical regulatory body is all set to discuss plans to see more strict guidelines and careful oversight of doctors who offer cosmetic services, acting reported cases of a growing number of doctors doing high-risk cosmetic procedures.
According to Kathryn Clarke, the spokesperson of the medical regulatory body, the body is going to update their progress as decisions are to be done on the set meeting.
The meeting is set less than two months following the death of a 32-year-old real estate agent Krista Styland, after undergoing a liposuction procedure apparently done by the family’s physician claiming to be a cosmetic surgeon.
Licensed plastic surgeons based in Ontario and who are required to complete at least five years of residency before finally becoming certified surgeons, have long before complained about some doctors in the area claiming as cosmetic surgeons—accordingly a grey term, which has eventually served to hundreds of confused patients.
Under the guidelines from the college, cosmetic surgery is not listed as part of a specialty.
The board will conduct reviews from results of a recently conducted mandatory-response survey to evaluate the qualifications of more than four hundred doctors that has been identified practicing cosmetic procedures such as breast implants and Botox. According to Clarke, those doctors who will fail to meet the standard requirements are subject for thorough reviews by the college.
The Four-Point Plan
Acknowledging the field of cosmetic surgery apparently had less than strict regulations, which prompted the college to approve a four-point plan, aimed at overseeing the laxity of most doctors doing procedures not part in the fields of practice they are certified in.
The plan is also calling for reviews of the required trainings doctors need so that they could perform cosmetic procedures. Early in 2000, the college has also passed a regulation that obliges doctors planning to change their fields of practice to send a notification to the regulatory body for proper assessment. However, this voluntary procedure was met only with very little compliance.
During the time the policy was passed way back 2000, the board had high expectations of physicians voluntarily reporting to them—but the plan was not mandatory which explained why they only got little response. Another point of the plan is to change how the policy works. Accordingly, the plan was pushed to become mandatory, but it did not turn out successful since it meant changing the general by-laws of the college.
To further spread out their plans, the college posted fact sheets on its websites, explaining the kinds of doctors allowed to perform any type of cosmetic surgery in Ontario. Moreover, the sheets also provided some checklists of inquiries that patients can download and bring them along to a surgical consultation.
With the meeting set to further solve the issue, the cosmetic industry in Ontario is expected to be safer this time, with qualified cosmetic surgeons.
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