Nurses protest: Rally outside parliament after state government enforced injectables crackdown

Nurses have hit out at Health Minister Tim Nicholls in a protest outside parliament this morning following an injectables crackdown they say will impact patients and increase costs.

Cosmetic nurses have protested outside parliament in Brisbane this morning following a state government-enforced crackdown on injectables.

The latest move to tighten regulations has prompted some clinics to pause injectable services while they assess compliance with new interpretations of the Medicines and Poisons Act.

Nurses, including the newly formed Queensland Aesthetic Nurses United, are calling for safer and fairer regulation for the cosmetic injectables industry.

Lisa Oakman, and Megan McRae at Tuesday morning’s rally. Picture: Steve Pohlner

Under the Medicines and Poisons Act, only prescribers who retain exclusive custody and control of S4 cosmetic medicines may store them on-site. S4 injections are used in popular beauty like Botox and fillers.

Nurses may administer such medicines, but only under the direction of an authorised prescriber and not from their own stock.

Protesters, including nurses in uniform, attending a cosmetic rally at outside Parliament House. Photo Steve Pohlner

Chants of “hey Tim let us in” (in reference to Health Minister Tim Nicholls) and “what do we want, transparency, when do we want it, now” could be heard across the courtyard.

The group is calling for poisons licences to be rolled out across Queensland, like schemes in other states.

“Protect our patients, trust our care” and “Poisons licence, make it right” were among the rallying cries from the group.

Katie Ryan, owner of Muse Aesthetic Clinic in Samford, said she attended the rally on behalf of her patients who she said would be impacted by the changes.

Protesters attend a cosmetic rally at outside Parliament House. Photo Steve Pohlner

Ms Ryan said while she will be able to absorb the costs she has already had to let one staff member go.

“It will add on extra costs and extra burdens by having to make having them to potentially make two appointments for one treatment, or costs of not being able to store medication on site,” she said.

Ms Ryan said she has been a cosmetic nurse since 2007 and said she made the change after starting a family.

“There is no way that I can work in hospital doing shift work,” she said.

“I’m a single mum, I have three kids.

“It seems unfair for women, it’s a female dominated industry, with 90 per cent of our patients are women, but they don’t seem to be consulting with anyone in our industry.”

Some of the signs held by protesting nurses. Photo Steve Pohlner

Lisa Oakman, cosmetic nurse and founder of The Glow Co. Aesthetics said these regulations are gutting nurse-led clinics, many of which are run by primary earners, parents, and sole providers.

Ms Oakman said she was feeling “hopeful” today’s protest would lead to a meeting with Health Minister Tim Nicholls.

“He’s rejected my requests for meetings many times and palmed me off to other units,” Ms Oakman said.

“I’m in his electorate, and he should actually be listening to the small businesses in his area. They said they would consult with industry when they changed things, but they haven’t consulted with us at all.

“People say the [monthly] $850 will be okay and we can pass that on to our patients, but that’s not okay. We are very small businesses, when sometimes you are doing two jobs to make your businesses run, that has a huge impact on very small businesses.”

Under the Medicines and Poisons Act, only prescribers who retain exclusive custody and control of S4 cosmetic medicines may store them on-site.

Nurses may administer such medicines, but only under the direction of an authorised prescriber and not from their own stock.

In Brisbane, there have been 224 personal appearance services issued with a license in the past 24 months, of these 60 have “implanting’ identified as an activity.