Plastic surgeons ‘disappointed’ by ruling in landmark case against Ahpra’s Medical Board of Australia
A decision has been handed down in a landmark legal challenge led by a prominent Geelong plastic surgeon against Ahpra’s Medical Board over new cosmetic surgery industry guidelines.
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A landmark legal challenge spearheaded by a Victorian plastic surgeon against Ahpra’s Medical Board of Australia over new cosmetic surgery guidelines has been dismissed.
Geelong plastic surgeon Peter Callan — a former president of the Society of Plastic Surgeons — and Sydney-based plastic, reconstructive and cosmetic surgeon Simone Matousek led a group of surgeons in the action against the medical board in the NSW Supreme Court, claiming its decision to issue the guidelines was outside its power and asking the guidelines be declared invalid.
But Acting Justice John Griffiths on Tuesday dismissed the surgeons’ case, saying he did not accept their contentions and was “not satisfied that plaintiffs have discharged their burden of demonstrating that the 2023 guidelines were developed and approved and improper and unauthorised purpose”.
In his Judgement, he said: “There are many features of the 2023 Guidelines which indicate that their purpose was to provide guidance and not to create legally binding rules.”
A group of around 30 prominent surgeons financed the extraordinary legal challenge against the medical board over what the surgeons had previously described as “misogynistic, misleading and potentially dangerous” changes to the guidelines governing cosmetic surgery in Australia.
In October last year they released a statement alleging that rather than stamping out “cosmetic cowboys” as promised, the new cosmetic industry regulatory requirements still allowed untrained doctors to operate on unsuspecting Australians.
The new guidelines came into effect on July 1 last year as part of a promised crackdown by the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (Ahpra) and medical board on the cosmetic surgery and injectables industry.
The Medical Board of Australia Board (MBA) is supported by Ahpra.
In a statement provided to the Herald Sun on Tuesday night the surgeons said they were “currently considering His Honour Justice Griffiths’ Judgement” and were “disappointed in the outcome and remain strongly of the view that the 2023 Guidelines do not improve patient safety as the Medical Board claims they do”.
“Our patients’ safety is of the utmost importance to us and we will continue to practise in a way that ensures the highest standards of care are met despite our experience that the 2023 Guidelines impede these efforts,” the statement reads.
The surgeons remained of the view that the 2023 Guidelines were beyond the board’s powers and functions “and were issued for an improper purpose”, it says.
Medical Board of Australia Chair Dr Anne Tonkin on Wednesday said the board was pleased the court found it had “used its powers appropriately in reforming cosmetic surgery, to protect patients”.
“This important decision means standards in cosmetic surgery can stay high, and patients will be the winners,” she said in a statement to the Herald Sun.
A spokeswoman for Ahpra and the MBA said the new guidelines would continue to be enforced, “to protect the public and reform the cosmetic surgery industry”.
“Over the nine months since the updated cosmetic clinical and advertising guidelines took effect, we have seen positive changes in the practice of doctors in the cosmetic industry,” she said.
“Cosmetic surgery is a lucrative and hotly contested industry. In the process of developing the guidelines and lifting standards, the board had feedback that our draft guidelines went too far, and also that they didn’t go far enough. The board listened to all perspectives and set a fair, safe and reasonable bar.
“As we always do, we will keep monitoring the impact of the cosmetic surgery reforms and adjust standards in future, if changes are needed to keep patients safe.”
Originally published as Plastic surgeons ‘disappointed’ by ruling in landmark case against Ahpra’s Medical Board of Australia
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