We were told by one doctor who had worked for an injectables clinic that doctors who take βtoo longβ to issue telehealth scripts for dermal fillers or Botox βare chosen less often by [injecting] nursesβ.
The aim is to maximise volume in what is already a multibillion-dollar industry.
One does not have to be particularly cynical to note that many advertising videos online are also less than one minute long.
While we are unlikely to see demand fall away, we can surely do a better job of regulating the provision of such services, given the very real health implications involved.
Even though the bottle is now well behind the genie, the nationβs policymakers should still take a moment to consider whether telehealth is an appropriate way to deliver this medicine.
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If it is deemed appropriate, then this masthead believes a number of measures should be swiftly introduced.
As patient advocacy group Operation Redress suggested to us, clinics should have to register their case complications.
At present, the Therapeutic Goods Administration encourages patients to come forward, but this reckons without the stigma that often surrounds such treatments when they go wrong. The onus of notification should be squarely on the supplier of the service.
Secondly, we believe that a formalised training requirement for nurse injectors β or βnursepreneursβ, as they are sometimes known β should amount to more than the sort of two-day βboot campβ that one clinic has advertised.
It is also worth considering whether doctors and nurses should be allowed to move straight from graduation into these sorts of businesses, rather than first being required to practise in more conventional medical settings.
Finally, we believe that there should be a mandated minimum consultation time and continuity of consultation before repeated treatments of this kind can proceed. The current approach makes a mockery of rules crafted with the patientβs interests to the fore.
Cosmetic doctor Tom Parmakellis has suggested that the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency should have guidelines for how many patients a doctor can see by telehealth in a single day, and how many nurses each doctor is allowed to supervise.
It may be argued that this will harm some clinicsβ business models, but cosmetic physician Ansulette Kay told us that it is precisely βeasy access to treatments, cheaper pricing, lower perceived and disclosed risks and aggressive marketingβ that are increasing the problems in this sector.
It is vital that there is a proactive third party, whether it is the TGA or AHPRA or both, safeguarding patientsβ interests.
It is clear that this is not happening right now. That is the beauty industryβs ugly reality.
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