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Guidance for doctors who offer cosmetic interventions

This guidance came into effect on 1 June 2016

This guidance sets out what is expected of every doctor who offers cosmetic interventions.

By cosmetic interventions, we mean any intervention, procedure, or treatment carried out with the primary objective of changing an aspect of a patient’s physical appearance. This includes surgical and non-surgical procedures, both invasive and non-invasive.

This guidance incorporates principles from our existing guidance, and is structured under the four domains of Good medical practice. In some cases, it sets a higher standard than in our other guidance to address the specific safety issues and ethical concerns particular to the cosmetic sector.

Doctors must follow all our guidance: serious or persistent failure to do so will put their registration at risk.

Read the guidance

Frequently asked questions

  1. 1. Why have you produced this guidance now?
  2. 2. Who does the guidance apply to?
  3. 3. What about cosmetic procedures carried out by non-doctors (eg nurses, dentists, pharmacists, beauticians etc) - what are you doing about them?
  4. 4. Does the guidance cover laser or refractive eye surgery?
  5. 5. Can a doctor still delegate the administration of Botox®/filler injections to appropriately qualified staff?
  6. 6. How does a doctor decide how much time is needed for reflection?
  7. 7. Does there always need to be two separate consultations or is same day treatment acceptable?
  8. 8. Do loyalty schemes, packages, Groupon advertising etc contravene the guidelines?
  9. 9. What advice do you give to doctors who are approached by patients using crowdfunding?
  10. 10. What should patients do if they are not happy with the cosmetic procedure they have had?
  11. 11. What will you do if doctors breach the guidance?

The guidance in practice: case studies

The following case studies relate to issues concerning cosmetic interventions and may help you to see how our guidance might work in practice:

We also have relevant case studies in Good medical practice in action (GMPiA) the GMC’s interactive case studies resource.

  • Mrs Melville (doctor concerned that cosmetic procedure requested may not have the desired outcome and advertising)
  • Christopher (parent seeking cosmetic procedure for their child).

Information for patients

Other sources of guidance

Professional Standards for Cosmetic Surgery
 Published by the Royal College of Surgeons (2016)

Qualification requirements for delivery of cosmetic procedures
Published by NHS Health Education England (pdf) (2015)

Report on implementation of qualification requirements for cosmetic procedures
 Published by NHS Health Education England (pdf) (2015)

The codes of practice from:

Marketing of cosmetic interventions
 Published by Committee of Advertising Practice (2013)

Background

You can read more about the development of the guidance (pdf) in this document. This explains the process we undertook in developing the guidance and the outcome of the consultation (pdf) we carried out during 2015.

In addition the equality analysis (pdf) that we carried out during the development of the guidance shows the work that we did to inform our understanding of the equality and diversity dimensions which apply to the cosmetic sector.