Doctors still prescribing Botox without consultations, undercover report finds

Doctors are breaching medical guidance and prescribing botox to patients without undergoing face-to-face consultations, according to an undercover investigation by The Times.

Treatments are being administered without a proper assessment and some are receiving injections from beauty therapists who are obtaining prescriptions directly from doctors, or worse, the black market, the report found.  

One undercover reporter said she was offered a botox injection on the spot, at a reduced price and with no need to see a doctor by a beauty therapist in Romford, Essex.

General Medical Council guidelines require doctors to meet patients first if they are prescribing botox injections to be administered by a third party.

Since the investigation went public, one doctor has been struck off already for remotely prescribing botox to hundreds of nurses, while a beauty therapist in South Wales is being investigated about receiving stock from a doctor without “face-to-face consultation”.

Regulators and ministers have been pushing for tougher regulation of the cosmetic industry since the Poly Implant Prothese (PIP) breast implant scandal two years ago – where unauthorised silicone implants burst twice as quickly as others.