On Tuesday,the jig was up when the national regulator announced a wide-ranging external review into the cosmetic surgery industry with experienced professionals at the helm. Areas to be examined include better ways to protect patients,the unfettered use of social media by some cosmetic surgeons to promote their services and why medical practitioners and clinicians aren’t fulfilling their mandatory requirements to report wrongdoings.
Martin Fletcher,chief executive of the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency,made it clear the inquiry was triggered by joint media investigation.
“Obviously we were very concerned by the material that was broadcast on Four Corners and although some of that was known to us and were matters we were actively investigating,there was an awful lot of information we didn’t know.”
He is right about that. Our investigation revealed photos of botched cosmetic surgeries,videos of surgical instruments stored in dirty suitcases,photos inside the clinics of Dr Lanzer showing human fat stored in kitchen fridges,syringes sitting alongside water bottles,expired medication used on unsuspecting patients and staff taking home human fat in shopping bags to avoid regulator audits.
Every few years there are scandals in the cosmetic surgery industry but until now,little has been done. There have been multiple inquiries,often parliamentary inquiries,that produce reports that go nowhere.
This scandal has triggered the first-ever review of the multi-billion dollar cosmetic procedures’ industry by the national regulator,which has acknowledged patients need to be kept safe and that more needs to be done to keep pace with an industry that Fletcher describes as having “unique elements” which make it different to other areas of medicine.