New rules loom in cosmetic surgery

Ontario doctors could soon face stringent guidelines preventing general practitioners from performing high-risk cosmetic surgical procedures - including facelifts, tummy tucks and liposuction - after the provincial College of Physicians and Surgeons meets to approve two sweeping regulatory changes today.

The vote comes nearly seven months after 32-year-old real-estate agent and mother Krista Stryland died following a liposuction procedure performed by a family physician who advertised herself as a cosmetic surgeon.

One of the new regulatory amendments would bar doctors from using the title "surgeon" unless they are formally certified as such by the provincial body or the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.

A second amendment would end the popular practice of doctors advertising medical specializations for which they are not formally accredited.

Contravention of these rules would constitute professional misconduct, which is subject to disciplinary proceedings.

Ontario's plastic surgeons, who train for five years in residency before being certified, have long complained that general practitioners who call themselves "cosmetic surgeons" confuse and endanger patients. The college does not recognize the term as a formal specialty.

In April of last year, the Ontario college heeded those protests and embarked on a review of the booming, and largely unrestricted, field of cosmetic surgery. At a meeting that month, council members admitted that rapid growth in the field had outpaced their ability to regulate it. The body realized it had no way of knowing who was performing cosmetic procedures or whether they were qualified to do so.

In its annual membership renewal survey, the college found that the number of physicians performing cosmetic procedures increased 150 per cent between 2002 and 2006.

After Ms. Stryland's death drew wide media attention to the free-for-all field last September, the college fast-tracked its review.During a November meeting, the college revealed that it was investigating 16 physicians who were routinely performing operations for which they may not have been formally accredited.

Investigations of those physicians are continuing, said Kathryn Clarke, a spokeswoman for the regulatory body.

Critics said the college wasn't acting fast enough.

"In hindsight, you might have wished you moved faster," Ms. Clarke said. "We are now moving as quickly as we can, but in a very thorough fashion."

The regulatory body took its first major step toward clamping down on cosmetic surgery in February, moving ahead with the creation of an inspection system for out-of-hospital facilities such as surgical clinics.

Previously, surgical clinics such as the one where Ms. Stryland underwent liposuction were not subject to any form of regulation, according to the college.

The inspections will not apply to minor "lump and bump" procedures performed under local anesthetic in doctors' offices.

The college has been circulating versions of the proposed amendments since November and is expected to approve them today. They would then be passed along to the provincial government for final assent, a process with an indefinite timeline, according to Ms. Clarke.

"These are very big changes and very positive changes," she said.

Source: www.theglobeandmail.com