The importance of safety and training in medical aesthetics

In 2018, a botched lip procedure at a ‘Botox party’ led to Rachael Knappier's upper lip swelling to five times its normal size. Filler had been accidentally injected into her artery and she was forced to seek urgent medical treatment. Six months later, her MP, Alberto Costa, tabled a Westminster Hall debate to discuss her case and raise concerns about the lack of regulation in aesthetics.

Training was one of the core issues debated, with MPs calling for practitioners to have the right level of anatomical knowledge to enable them to advise people on potential complications. Renewed demands for more formal training and a regulatory body to hold practitioners accountable were also raised.

We all know, of course, that adequate training is key to patient safety. The problem is the lack of industry consensus about what adequate training looks like and what makes an adequate trainer.

In reality, there is no barrier to entry in aesthetics training other than a PowerPoint slide. Many insurance companies only need to see a simple presentation before they will indemnify someone, and, as the recent parliamentary debate highlighted, there is little formal regulation around the training they can then provide.