Edit Consenting to a Cosmetic Surgery treatment

<p><strong>Cooling off Period</strong></p> <p><br />The National Minimum Standards provide at A26 that no patient should be admitted for the procedure on the same day as the initial consultation. Compare and contrast the Guide to Good Medical Practice in Cosmetic Surgery issued by the Independent Healthcare Advisory Services in May 2006:</p> <blockquote> <p>“<em>You should not normally admit any patient for a procedure to be carried out sooner than two weeks after the initial consultation in order to allow the patient adequate time for reflection.</em>”</p> </blockquote> <p>In my experience most reputable surgeons would follow the "two week rule" but it is far from clear that a allowing a shorter period would be negligent.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Commercial Pressures</strong></p> <p><br />As can be seen the process of obtaining informed consent to cosmetic surgery might require considerable input of professional resources. Since cosmetic surgery is nearly always provided as part of a commercial enterprise, there will be a tension between allocating those resources and maintaining margins.</p> <p>Further, some might argue, there is a tension between giving proper warnings of risks, complications and future costs and the commercial imperative to increase turnover. Whatever the commercial pressures, the surgeon's duty of care and skill in giving pre-operative advice, is to the patient.</p> <p>The British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS) has useful advice to patients/potential patients about the issues they should consider before consenting to cosmetic surgery. So too does the <a title="BAPRAS - The Five Cs – A Cosmetic Surgery Checklist" href="https://www.bapras.org.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">British Association of Plastic Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons</a>.</p> <p>In order to succeed in a claim for compensation a claimant would have to establish both that the pre-operative advice was negligent and that they have suffered injury as a result of that advice.</p> <p>It is not always easy for a patient who was highly motivated to undergo surgery to prove that he/she would not have undergone the surgery had they been advised of a particular risk or complication.</p>

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