Key Changes Effective from 1 June 2025:
Face-to-Face Consultations: Nursing and midwifery prescribers must consult with patients in person before issuing prescriptions for non-surgical cosmetic procedures.
Regulated Premises: Prescriptions must be issued in Health Improvement Scotland or NHS regulated premises, such as dental practices.
Qualified Prescribers: Only qualified prescribers such as dentists, doctors, prescribing nurses or prescribing pharmacists can issue these prescriptions.
Rationale Behind the Update
The NMC's decision aims to mitigate risks associated with non-surgical cosmetic procedures and maintain public trust and confidence in the profession. This update follows an independent public-facing research project conducted by the agency Thinks, which engaged with members of the public. Additionally, a roundtable event hosted by the NMC included various stakeholders such as regulated healthcare professionals, non-prescribing health and care professionals, unregulated practitioners like beauticians and cosmetic business owners.
Research Findings
The research found that overall, there was strong public support for the NMC's position and highlighted that many individuals undergoing non-surgical cosmetic procedures had not fully considered how the medicines were obtained when the person administering it was not a healthcare professional and/or were unaware that they were prescribed medicines. These findings emphasised the need for better protection and improved safety for people using these services.
Implications for the Cosmetics Industry
While this approach by the NMC does go some way to addressing some concerns, it does not resolve all issues related to the lack of legal regulation within the cosmetics industry, especially for treatments which do not involve prescribed medicines (please read Amina Amin's recent insight on this topic here). Nonetheless, this move will no doubt be seen as a positive first step by many medical practitioners within the industry.
For further details, you can visit the NMC's official announcement here.
