Doctors & Mandatory CQC Registration for Aesthetic Work
CQC Registration for Cosmetic Doctors
There is often confusion around when a GMC registered doctor, who performs aesthetic procedures, has to be registered with CQC.
What is particularly confusing is that some high street lay-beauticians can perform aesthetic procedures without ever needing to being registered with CQC; whereas, a doctor would need to be registered, if they perform the same aesthetic procedures.
The CQC website Choosing Cosmetic Surgery (as published 6/5/22) advises consumers of aesthetic procedures that lay people do not have to be registered with CQC to perform, whereas registered healthcare professionals do have to be registered for some.
Doctors would need to be CQC registered for (among other things):
all types of thread lifting – for example, polydioxanone (PDO) and poly-L-lactic acid (PLLA) thread lifting
Whereas lay people would not need to be registered for:
thread lifting carried out by someone who is not a healthcare professional. For example, a beautician.
cosmetic procedures involving cutting or inserting instruments or equipment into the body (unless the procedure is carried out by a registered healthcare professional).
For the full list of what a doctor can and cannot do without CQC registration, see the CQC website.
Note that the CQC’s regulations change from time to time, and so the above lists may not be current at the time of reading.
It remains surprising that lay people can perform such procedures in an unregulated environment. Nevertheless, lay people will still be obliged to comply with health and safety law, and laws relating to medicines and other matters.
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