The Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) has announced it will expand its “crackdown” on the cosmetic surgery industry. As the agency responsible for registering, accrediting and disciplining health practitioners, AHPRA is well placed to reshape conduct in what sociologists once called the appearance industry.
It plans to develop stricter guidelines for non-surgical cosmetic procedures – especially advertising practices, consent procedures and pre-procedure suitability screening.
The regulator’s primary targets are health practitioners authorised to prescribe restricted drugs (schedule 4 medicines) to patients for aesthetic enhancement. The compounds are regulated differently across each state and territory, but they are generally restricted to medical and nursing practitioners or people directly supervised by them.
