subject: Medical Negligence Solicitors Call For Better Patient Protection [print this page] Medical negligence solicitors who normally act for those who suffer NHS negligence, are now focusing on cowboy cosmetic treatments from high street clinics.
There has been a rise in demand for medical negligence solicitors in suing those providers of non-surgical beauty and anti-aging treatments. This comes at the same time as a renewed call for better protection and quality control for clients.
"I have seen a significant rise in complaints about botched injections of fillers and Botox," remarks one medical negligence solicitor.
"With fillers, the repeated complaint is hard lumps, especially in the lips and cheeks, after fillers have been injected. Some people have needed surgery to remove the lumps and have been left with disfigurement and psychological scarring."
"Complainants say they have been burned by laser treatment, that fillers have been injected into the wrong place, or that the skin has been left looking lumpy, or that they've had too much Botox put into the wrong place, which has left them looking rather strange,"
These concerns appear to be given some weight as the Independent Healthcare Advisory Service, alone with the Department of Health are preparing to launch some new regulations and rules to monitor such providers.
But is it too little, too late. Or even too little, regardless of the time.
"The industry is big money, yet there is very little protection for patients. A voluntary scheme of self-regulation will not go far enough in giving patients protection from cowboys, as the unscrupulous players will be free not to sign up. The government needs to act , remarks one critic.
"Increasingly, I have seen people suffering from botched treatments administered by insufficiently trained practitioners. More and more people each year are harmed or scarred, either temporarily or permanently."
While some burns are only mild, others are serious. "Myself and my colleagues in our medical law team have received an increasing number of inquiries over the past two years from patients who have suffered disfigurement as a result of cosmetic procedures, particularly laser hair removal leading to first-degree burns," remarked yet another solicitor.
"People often feel pressurised into such treatments once they have made inquiries with a clinic and the treatment is often sold to them as being nothing more than having your hair or nails done, when in fact serious complications can occur, causing life-long injuries."
"People usually find their injuries quite distressing because it involves their appearance, or they can feel embarrassedThey are upset because they have put a lot of trust in the doctor and gone in to the treatment with high expectations."
Regardless, with the combination of an increasing industry and increasing societal pressure to look a certain way, medical negligence lawyers foresee that this is a problem that needs to be addressed now.
