January 2016

Remote Prescribing, Information provided by Shailesh Patel, Pharmacist and Owner of Pharmacyspace

An article in The Times newspaper in December last year regarding the issue of remote prescribing has led to aesthetic practitioners dealing with queries from concerned patients. The following information is provided to support practitioners reflect on their current practice.

Since July 2012, both the General Medical Council (GMC) and General Dental council (GDC) have issued guidance prohibiting practitioners from prescribing Botox and other injectable cosmetics by phone, email, video-link or fax. Before prescribing Botox or other injectable medicines, practitioners need to have a face-to-face consultation to fully assess the patient, understand their medical history and their reasons for wanting treatment.

If you are a newly qualified doctor and are required by the GMC to practice in Approved Practice Settings (APS), then you are not authorised to prescribe Prescription Only Medicines (POM) in an environment outside the APS. This means that doctors who work in clinics outside of an APS cannot rely on other remote prescribing doctors, to prescribe Botox for them to use.

For nurses who are not independent prescribers this can pose additional challenges. As a non-prescribing nurse working with a prescribing partner, the prescriber will need to assess the patient during a face-to-face consultation before prescribing, and additionally, will need to take responsibility that the nurse administering the prescribed medicine under their direction is trained and competent to do so.

Pharmacyspace is based in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire and is dedicated to providing a trusted and cost-effective service for your clinic supplies. The handpicked team of dedicated staff will ensure that you get the products you need for your clinic, together with a professional service.

For more information on our aesthetic pharmacy partnership with Pharmacy Space, or the courses we offer at Cosmetic Courses, please call the team on 01844 318317 or email us at [email protected].

It’s that time of the year again. A time for reflecting on the year that’s passed, and looking forward to what the new year might bring. And for us at Cosmetic Courses, that means thinking about the aesthetic trends we’re likely to see.

New year, new aesthetic trends?

Non-surgical treatments ebb and flow in the popularity stakes all the time. Innovative new procedures create a buzz, others fall out of favour, and some completely fail to capture the public’s imagination from the outset.

And changing aesthetic trends mean not only brand new treatments, but also for us in the industry, new training courses.

There’s a constant appetite for new aesthetic training courses as practitioners seek to expand their repertoire and stay ahead of the game – and their competitors.

So which treatments are likely to prosper in 2016?

For us, there’s a couple of contenders that we think will really grow over the next year. Two recent additions to our Skin Clinic, which we plan to add to our training programme at Cosmetic Courses, are Silhoutte Soft Thread Lift and Fat Freezing.

Silhouette Soft Thread Lift

Silhouette Soft is a non-surgical alternative to facelift, carried out with internal sutures. Under local anaesthetic, the dissolvable sutures are threaded underneath the patient’s skin in several key points. Once in place, the sutures are used to internally lift and re-anchor the skin.

It’s a great option for lifting sagging cheeks and jowls. And because the sutures can be placed wherever needed, treatment can be tailored to the patient.

It also has a regenerative action that continues to work long after treatment. The poly-L-lactic acid sutures are gradually reabsorbed by the skin, which helps to progressively restore lost collagen, extending the anti-ageing effects.

The big advantage for both practitioner and patient is the treatment’s flexibility. You can precisely target the areas of your patient’s face that will produce the best results.

Your patients will also be won over by the treatment’s non-invasiveness. It needs no incisions, only small entry and exit points for the sutures, so it leaves no permanent scars.

Fat Freezing Treatment

Any talk of new year wouldn’t be complete without mentioning fat loss. And we predict Cryolipolysis fat freezing treatment is one of the aesthetic trends to watch in 2016.

A non-surgical alternative to liposuction, the treatment works through super-cooling areas of stubborn fat. The low temperature (-9°C) kickstarts the process of apoptosis in the fat cells; over the following weeks and months the cells dissolve, before being safely removed from the body through the lymphatic system.

For the practitioner, treatment is easy to perform, and for the patient, it’s painless. The machine’s applicator head is simply placed onto the area being targeted, and the patient will feel gentle suction pulling the fatty tissue in between the cooling units.

It can be used on nearly all areas of the body – the abdomen, thighs, flanks, arms and back being the most popular areas. Treatment for each area takes around 60 minutes, with most patients needing 2 treatments for best results.

What do you think? Which aesthetic trends are you expecting next year, and what would you like to see? If you have any requests for treatments you’d like us to consider adding to our training programme, feel free to let us know. Contact us by emailing [email protected] or calling 01844 318317.