Beauty industry insiders campaigning for greater regulation for cosmetics procedures have taken their concerns to Prime Minister Theresa May.
Safety in Beauty Campaign representatives, Dr Selena Langdon, an aesthetic doctor, and Antonia Mariconda, founder and ambassador of the campaign, met with May to deliver and discuss a report outlining tighter regulations they believe should be mandatory in order to avoid ‘botched’ jobs.
These include new regulations permitting only suitably-qualified medical professionals to carry out non-invasive aesthetic procedures; mandatory minimum insurance cover for everyone that performs cosmetic procedures; and stricter controls over patient selection and psychological screening.
Langdon said: ”I am pleased that I have had the opportunity to put my concerns and frustrations for public safety directly to the Prime Minister, and I feel that this direct meeting has allowed me to represent some of the frustrations both my medical aesthetic colleagues and I have faced for years at the lack of regard for proper training, education and regulation.”
The report also recounted the experiences of several patients who were subject to unsafe procedures carried out by badly trained and inexperienced providers.
In total, there were over 1,200 complaints made by the public in 2017 regarding cosmetics procedures, which Mariconda said is a reflection of an industry “at crisis point”.
May is said to have confirmed to Mariconda that the report would be “passed to the Department of Health for investigation”.
Mariconda added:”I am delighted that The Safety in Beauty Campaign is the first and only campaign of its kind in the UK to have been given the opportunity to directly present to the Prime Minister, a vast array of complaints and cases received.
"Our primary goal was to give the public a representative voice in demonstrating how the industry has become a cash lucrative wild west enticing thousands of unqualified and poorly trained cosmetic cowboys to enter the arena, our concern and major priority is public safety, and the potential for serious risks and complications is now at crisis point.”
