Botox loophole putting Victorian patients at risk

Doctors fear people getting Botox injections are being put at risk of blindness because of a loophole that’s being “exploited”.

Doctors are calling for an end to technology-based patient consultations for Botox.

A leading plastic surgeon is calling for an end to video-only consultations before fillers or Botox injections are administered, saying patients are at risk of blindness and other serious complications.

Technology-based patient consultations are legal in Victoria but leading doctors are pushing for the closure of the “loophole”, claiming it was never meant to be used this way.

It comes as Health Complaints Commission data obtained exclusively by the Sunday Herald Sun reveals 169 complaints were made about cosmetic health services across the state in the past three years.

An estimated 30 per cent of the cosmetic treatment service complaints resolved related to the use of Botox, injectables, fillers and Hyaluron pens during treatments.

Professor Mark Ashton, who specialises in cosmetic and reconstructive breast surgery at the Epworth Freemasons Hospital, said the practice of cosmetic medicine in Victoria was still largely “unregulated”.

“There’s a loophole in the law that is being exploited, which allows doctors to prescribe Botox and fillers via telemedicine,” he said.

“I don’t think anyone writing the regulation or the laws ever intended for people to use Skype to inject filler into people’s faces or Botox into people’s faces, it was designed for the administration of antibiotics and lifesaving medications, particularly in regional Victoria, where that technology and that regulation is helpful.”

Prof Ashton said the use of this legislation was putting patients at risk of blindness and other serious complications.

“I’m aware of people who just last year had filler injected at a shopping centre and went blind permanently,” he said.

“The risk is that if it’s injected into a blood vessel, it can travel along the blood vessel and it can end up away from the site of injection where it can cause tissue death and blindness.

“Blindness can occur instantaneously or after a period of two to three hours of the injection and the tissue death can occur two to three four hours after injection.

“Even if a person working within a shopping centre cosmetic clinic is extremely well-trained, if something goes wrong they don’t have the appropriate medical personnel to implement the corrective surgical treatment.”

Acting Health Complaints Commissioner Elizabeth Langdon said they were continuing to receive a high number of complaints, with most dealt with through their resolution process.

But in more serious cases, investigations are launched.

She said the number of investigations undertaken almost doubled in the 2019-20 financial year to 15 compared with eight in the previous year.

She said there were only eight investigations launched in the 12 months to June 30 this year, but put the drop down to COVID-19 and public health restrictions on health and beauty businesses during that period.

She urged anyone who has had a bad experience to lodge a complaint online at hcc.vic.gov.au/make-complaint or call 1300 582 113.