Bella Donna injectables and Skin owner says anti-wrinkle treatment costs are set to skyrocket

One of the city’s leading cosmetic clinic owners says a new crackdown could send cosmetic injectable costs sky-high in Queensland – with “dodgy” methods putting clients at risk.

A Queensland Health crackdown has rocked the cosmetic industry, with clinic owners warning the price of procedures will skyrocket.

There are fears clinics could also be forced to close due to regulations requiring nurse-led facilities to employ a doctor, or opt for a pharmacy dispensary model.

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

This means nurse-led clinics cannot stock injectables like Botox, Dysport and filler unless a doctor is attached to the practice.

This does not mean the doctor has to physically work on-site.

Doctors and nurse practitioners can still provide telehealth services such as prescribing across multiple clinics, and registered nurses can continue to administer the product as per the prescription given by the prescriber.

Bella Donna’s Marina Bartlett is concerned for the industry. Picture: Glenn Hampson

Bella Donna Injectables and Skin owner and nurse Marina Bartlett said the changes still mean higher costs across the board.

“Everything’s going to go up in price, especially for the clients,” she said.

“For clinics that don’t have a doctor on-site and are using a scripting service, they’re going to now also be charged a dispensing fee and monthly overseeing fee.”

Ms Bartlett said it would mean a client would need to come in for a consult, a nurse would determine the treatment and what products were needed, before the client left to then have to return another time to have the product injected once the clinic received the stock.

“The nurse will order it through these larger corporations that are handling the script service, the nurse will pay the dispensing fee and the script fee, and then the client will come back several days later to get injected,” she said.

Generic image of man receiving Botox injection

However Mrs Bartlett said the biggest concern plaguing industry professionals were the risks associated with particular dispensary models. She said nurses can organise fillers and Botox to be ordered in through normal pharmacies and the client pick up the stock as long as it’s in their name.

“That method is so dodgy, because some clients will pick up their Botox or filler (in a syringe containing the prescribed amount of units) and go back to the nurse to have it injected,” she said.

“They’ll get the product go on YouTube and inject it themselves or have a friend do it to save money.”

Potential risks include occlusion, which can lead to blindness and necrosis, infection, dropping and drooping of eyes, and even death if an artery is hit.

“We’re going through a cost of living crisis and people are doing desperate things – it would not surprise me if this actually happens,” Mrs Bartlett said.

Bella Donna owner Marina Bartlett. Picture Glenn Hampson

The nurse said another major concern among industry professionals was if an infection were to occur, how the chain of infection would be tracked via the dispensing model.

Under the proposed model once an order is made the dispensary will measure and store the prescribed units from a vial into a syringe and send to the clinic.

“How do we know that they’ve used sterile techniques, drawing it out, mixing it up?” she said.

“How do we know that there’s not going to be an infection risk? And then what happens if the client doesn’t have any effect from the Botox – are we to assume it has been handled correctly and we are given the exact units not over or under diluted?”

Mrs Bartlett added: “There are so many variables to injectable aesthetic medicines, these need to be controlled properly by the injectable nurse to make sure everything is OK.”

Originally published as Bella Donna injectables and Skin owner says anti-wrinkle treatment costs are set to skyrocket