Cosmetic surgery – and non-surgical procedures – can leave patients with disastrous injuries if there are serious complications.
The scarring and other physical injuries are bad enough but victims can also suffer psychological trauma. For some, their life is shattered. Their relationship and their career may be damaged irreparably.
Why Clinicians Must Be Insured
Sadly, there’s little point in winning a claim if the person you’re suing has no money to compensate you. This is why it’s essential to ensure that providers of cosmetic procedures are legally registered and properly insured.
Before signing up for surgery, you must ensure that the cosmetic firm is insured for the procedure.
Currently, all independent hospitals and clinics that provide cosmetic surgery must be registered with the Care Quality Commission. The CQC publishes quality ratings so you can decide which surgeon to choose.
Only registered doctors can perform cosmetic surgery in England. However, the key words here are ‘surgery’ and ‘England’. The safeguards may not apply if you:
- go outside England for your surgery
- have a non-surgical procedure such as dermal fillers, Botox injections, laser hair removal, hair transplants, microdermabrasion, chemical peels, skin bleaching, tattoo removal and permanent makeup.
Unsure if the clinicians who carried out your botched procedure are regulated or insured? Contact our expert personal injury solicitors just to be safe.
Claiming Compensation For Failed Non-Surgical Procedures
This is one of the biggest areas of concern for personal injury solicitors because unregulated practitioners of non-surgical procedures can set up shop with:
- no formal qualifications
- no registration
- no insurance.
The Association of Personal Injury Solicitors (APIL) supports the possible introduction of a national licensing scheme for non-surgical cosmetic procedures. The government is currently considering such a scheme. It ran a consultation from 2 September 2023 until 28 October 2023.
However, the government notes that in 2022 the cosmetic and personal care sector contributed £24.5 billion to GDP and paid £6.8 billion in tax to the Treasury.
As a result, the Whitehall documentation points out: “Any licensing scheme for non-surgical cosmetic procedures must strike a balance between protecting the public and building confidence in the safety of the aesthetic industry, while respecting consumer choice and encouraging innovation.”
APIL is urging the government to:
- ensure practitioners have mandatory public liability insurance, as well as treatment risk insurance
- establish a national register of practitioners to ensure they and their premises are licensed
- introduce inspections of premises before they are licensed to provide treatments
- bring in “severe penalties” for unlicensed practitioners
- restrict treatments to those aged 18 or over (unless the procedure has a doctor’s approval).
An APIL spokesperson said: “At present, victims of poor treatment – which can cause serious and sometimes permanent injuries – cannot always secure the redress they need to get their lives back on track because the person or business that conducted the procedure is not insured correctly.
“We see people left with life-changing injuries after a procedure has been botched. They include victims left with severe and permanent scarring to their faces after chemical peels.”
Claim Compensation For Failed Cosmetic Procedures: No Win No Fee
Coles Miller’s personal injury and clinical negligence solicitors handle claims on a No Win No Fee basis. These Conditional Fee Agreements ensure you do not have to pay any costs in the unlikely event that your claim does not succeed.
Put simply, if a No Win No Fee claim fails, it is we the solicitors who have to fund all our legal costs. The other side’s costs would be covered by an insurance policy that you take out at the start of the claim.
This ensures that we take on only those cases that we know we have a good chance of winning.
Find out more here about No Win No Fee compensation claims.
Get Expert Legal Advice On Personal Injury Claims
For expert legal advice, contact Coles Miller Managing Partner Adrian Cormack, Head of the Personal Injury Department.
Adrian is a highly experienced personal injury solicitor who qualified in 1991, initially working at a London firm specialising in these claims. He joined Coles Miller in 1993 and handles a wide range of compensation claims, notably complex brain injury cases.
Adrian is based at Coles Miller’s Fleetsbridge office.
