The Department of Health recommends that patients should only receive advice about surgery from healthcare professionals with the relevant qualifications and level of expertise necessary to provide high-quality advice.
The National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcome and Death (NCEPOD) published a report in 2010, warning that some organisations weren't giving patients enough information to help them make decisions about serious operations.
From October 2010, all private providers have to be registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and comply with 16 safety and quality requirements, including ensuring the suitability of professionals to provide services.
Checking registration
When you first approach a private cosmetic surgery provider, you should ask to speak to a patient adviser. Check that your adviser is a doctor or nurse and that they're registered with the General Medical Council (GMC) or Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC).
You can also use the GMC website to check whether a doctor or surgeon is registered. The website gives details of the surgeon’s primary specialty, but it doesn't provide information about any other specialist qualifications that they may hold.
Most cosmetic surgeons will also be members of either the:
You can also find out whether a nurse is registered by using the Nursing and Midwifery Council’s searchable database. To check whether your dentist is registered, you can use the General Dental Council’s database. In both cases, you'll need to enter the person’s full name.
Checking qualifications
Surgeons who carry out cosmetic surgery must have received specialist training and have experience in the type of cosmetic surgical procedures that they're providing.
Non-surgical procedures, such as microdermabrasion (to reduce wrinkles and skin imperfections) must also be carried out by healthcare professionals who are fully trained and qualified.
Some healthcare professionals indicate their qualifications by placing letters after their name, such as Dr Charlotte Cornwall MBBS, or they display certificates in their clinics. However, it can sometimes be difficult to work out exactly what a qualification means.
Find out more about the most common medical, surgical, nursing and beauty qualifications, including the training that's needed to gain these qualifications and the letters that the qualification entitles the holder to use after their name.
Surgical qualifications
Surgeons are doctors who have received basic medical training before going on to specialise in surgery. Surgeons spend two years training in basic surgery, followed by five or six years specialising in a particular type of surgery, such as orthopaedic or plastic surgery.
If a surgeon successfully completes their training and passes their exams, they will be allowed to use the abbreviations below after their name, depending on where they qualified:
- FRCS – Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England
- FRCS (Ed) – Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh
- FRCS (Glas) – Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Glasgow
- FRCSI – Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland
Sometimes, surgeons from a number of other surgical specialties perform cosmetic surgery as well as their main specialty. The qualifications listed below indicate that a surgeon is highly qualified and experienced in their chosen specialty:
- FRCS (GenSurg) – Specialist Fellowship in General Surgery
- FRCS (OFMS) – Specialist Fellowship in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery
- FRCS (Otol) – Specialist Fellowship in Otolaryngology (ear, nose and throat surgery)
- FRCS (ORL) – Specialist Fellowship in Otorhinolaryngology (head and neck/facial plastic surgery)
- FRCSPlast – Specialist Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in England (who has passed specialist examinations in plastic surgery)
However, although surgeons who hold the above qualifications may also undertake cosmetic surgery procedures, the abbreviations do not denote that they have:
- received specialist cosmetic surgery training
- experience in performing plastic or cosmetic surgery
- experience in performing the cosmetic surgical procedure that you're considering
Therefore, you'll need to find out about their level of training and experience.
Asking questions
As well as checking that the surgeon who will be performing your cosmetic surgery is fully qualified and has a good level of experience, you should ask as many questions about the procedure as necessary to ensure that you understand the procedure and how it works.
The surgeon should explain to you at length what will happen before, during and after surgery. They should also give you advice about what to do if you have any problems after you get home.
Responsible surgeons will be open and honest with you about the risks involved in the procedure and the kind of results that you can realistically expect.
Complaints
If you're not happy with the results of cosmetic surgery or you believe the procedure was carried out incorrectly, you should take the matter up with your surgeon through the hospital or clinic that referred you.
Read more about complaining about cosmetic surgery.
