Asked by: Ranil Jayawardena (Conservative - North East Hampshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that there are means of recourse against private sector providers for patients experiencing long-term side effects as a result of laser eye surgery performed by private providers.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
Public and private sector providers of laser eye surgery are required by law to register with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) for regulation and doctors in the United Kingdom are required to register with the General Medical Council (GMC). The CQC and the GMC have a range of powers for addressing failures in care.
Providers are also expected to follow the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines on photorefractive (laser) surgery. The CQC, NICE and the Royal College of Ophthalmologists are all clear that the risks and complications of such procedures should be discussed with patients beforehand.
No estimate has been made of the number of people experiencing long-term side effects as a result of laser eye surgery because this data is not held centrally.
Asked by: Ranil Jayawardena (Conservative - North East Hampshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that providers of laser eye surgery clearly outline the risks of that procedure to patients prior to such surgery taking place.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
Public and private sector providers of laser eye surgery are required by law to register with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) for regulation and doctors in the United Kingdom are required to register with the General Medical Council (GMC). The CQC and the GMC have a range of powers for addressing failures in care.
Providers are also expected to follow the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines on photorefractive (laser) surgery. The CQC, NICE and the Royal College of Ophthalmologists are all clear that the risks and complications of such procedures should be discussed with patients beforehand.
No estimate has been made of the number of people experiencing long-term side effects as a result of laser eye surgery because this data is not held centrally.
Asked by: Ranil Jayawardena (Conservative - North East Hampshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate his Department has made of the number of people experiencing long-term side effects as a result of laser eye surgery.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
Public and private sector providers of laser eye surgery are required by law to register with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) for regulation and doctors in the United Kingdom are required to register with the General Medical Council (GMC). The CQC and the GMC have a range of powers for addressing failures in care.
Providers are also expected to follow the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines on photorefractive (laser) surgery. The CQC, NICE and the Royal College of Ophthalmologists are all clear that the risks and complications of such procedures should be discussed with patients beforehand.
No estimate has been made of the number of people experiencing long-term side effects as a result of laser eye surgery because this data is not held centrally.
Asked by: Bambos Charalambous (Labour - Enfield, Southgate)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that all surgeons offering cosmetic procedures in the private sector are certified by the Royal College of Surgeons.
Answered by Philip Dunne
The Government is committed to the effective regulation of those performing cosmetic procedures. Following Sir Bruce Keogh’s review of the regulation of cosmetic interventions, the Royal College of Surgeons has published a set of professional standards for cosmetic surgery and has launched a new certification scheme. This allows patients to search for a surgeon, including those in the private sector, who has appropriate training, qualifications and experience to perform the procedure they are considering.
Asked by: Bambos Charalambous (Labour - Enfield, Southgate)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of voluntary schemes for the registration and certification of practitioners offering cosmetic procedures to patients on the safety of such treatments.
Answered by Philip Dunne
The General Medical Council has introduced new guidance which sets out the standards for doctors carrying out cosmetic procedures. The guidance applies to all doctors who carry out both surgical and non-surgical procedures. The guidance says doctors must advertise and market services responsibly; give patients time for reflection; seek a patient’s consent themselves, not delegate it; provide continuity of care and support patient safety by making full and accurate records of consultations and contributing to programmes to monitor quality and outcomes, including registers for devices such as breast implants.
The Government recommends that anyone considering accessing cosmetic interventions, chooses a registered health professional or someone who is registered with an accredited voluntary register (AVR). A number of AVRs for practitioners preforming cosmetic interventions are already established. Using a practitioner registered with an AVR provides assurance that the practitioner is appropriately qualified, registered and insured.
On 13 September 2017 I laid new regulations in parliament to impose a duty on the Care Qualtiy Commission to rate and assess the performance of providers of surgical procedures for cosmetic purposes where the procedure requires intravenous sedation, general anaesthesia or the insertion of an implant. These regulations are due to come into force on 31 October.
Asked by: Kevan Jones (Labour - North Durham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will take steps to improve the regulation of dermal fillers used in non-surgical cosmetic interventions and not classified as medical devices.
Answered by Philip Dunne
The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency only regulates dermal fillers that are placed on the United Kingdom market as medical devices, as defined in the Medical Devices Regulations 2002. The majority of these products are intended to be used in reconstructive surgery, and as a result they are considered to be medical devices.
Where an unregulated medical product, including dermal fillers, is administered by a regulated medical professional, that regulated professional is subject to the standards of their registration.
Asked by: Kevan Jones (Labour - North Durham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will bring forward legislative proposals to enable the General Medical Council to display credentials in cosmetic surgery on its medical register of doctors.
Answered by Philip Dunne
The Department will soon consult on proposals for reforming professional regulation and will consider the General Medical Council proposals around credentialing as it takes forward plans for reform.
Asked by: Kevan Jones (Labour - North Durham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether he plans to establish a clinical audit database for cosmetic surgery as recommended by Professor Sir Bruce Keogh's Review of the regulation of cosmetic interventions, published in April 2013.
Answered by Philip Dunne
The Department commissioned the Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) to set up a cosmetic surgery inter-specialty committee to take forward a number of recommendations made by Professor Sir Bruce Keogh’s review. As part of their work, the RCS committee produced recommendations for a future national audit of cosmetic surgical practice in May 2016, which remain under consideration by the Department.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of regulation of the cosmetics industry.
Answered by Philip Dunne
The Government Response to the Review of the Regulation of Cosmetic Interventions was published in February 2014. It accepted the majority of the recommendations of the independent Review chaired by Sir Bruce Keogh, which published its report in February 2013 with recommendations on improving the quality of care, informing and empowering the public, and ensuring there were resolutions and redress available when interventions go wrong. A work programme was put in place, with relevant partners, to take forward the recommendations, which are now starting to come into effect to help improve standards for practitioners and the public.
In April 2016, the Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) published Professional Standards for Cosmetic Surgery for clinicians working in the cosmetic field. It also launched a patient information hub in June 2016 and has set in place a minimum dataset to assist the collection and collation of data related to cosmetic surgical activity. The General Medical Council (GMC) published new guidance for doctors performing cosmetic procedures which came into effect from 1 June 2016. The Care Quality Commission has also developed a new inspection framework which will take account of the new RCS and GMC requirements.
Earlier in the year, Health Education England (HEE) published qualification requirements for practitioners performing non-surgical cosmetic procedures. A Joint Council of Cosmetic Practitioners has recently been established that will look to build on the work of HEE by developing qualification requirements to deliver non-surgical cosmetic procedures, and aim to improve the standards and safety of the cosmetic industry. A breast and cosmetic implant registry was launched in October 2016 by NHS Digital, and NHS England aims to improve the reporting of adverse incidents and device failure to support overall improvement. In addition, NHS Choices is contributing information and advice on cosmetic interventions for the public.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to regulate cosmetic surgery providers.
Answered by Ben Gummer
Information data on the number of unsuccessful cosmetic surgery operations requiring further corrective surgery in the National Health Service is not held centrally.
In April 2013, the independent Review of the Regulation of Cosmetic Interventions, chaired by Sir Bruce Keogh, was published. A copy has already been placed in the Library.
We fully accept the principles of the Keogh review and the overwhelming majority of the recommendations. The response looks to strengthen standards through better training and robust qualifications, and explores how far supervision from regulated professionals might support self-regulation of the sector.
Departmental officials are working with key delivery partners including the Royal College of Surgeons, who have set up an inter-specialty committee to ensure standards for cosmetic surgery. The College is also working with the General Medical Council on a code of ethical conduct. Health Education England is leading on a review of training for providers of non-surgical interventions, such as botulinum toxin and dermal filler injections.
Under the Health and Social Care Act 2008, all cosmetic surgery providers who provide a regulated activity have to register with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and follow a set of fundamental standards of safety and quality below which care should never fall. The CQC has a wide range of enforcement powers that it can use if a provider is not compliant with the fundamental standards of care.