Consultations For Injectables Must Now Be In Person

From June 1 2025, the Nursing and Midwifery Council has mandated that all nurse and midwife prescribers of non-surgical cosmetic medicines e.g. anti-wrinkle injections and emergency medications, cannot be done remotely. Consultations must be face-to-face before prescribing controlled products. The aim of this is improve patient safety and ensure that clinical assessments are thorough. This mandate will also align the NMC with other regulators.

The NMC conducted research and, not unsurprisingly, found that the general public supported tougher standards to increase safety. It also found that users of these non-surgical products were not aware that medicines being used were prescription only. It is also unsurprising, given some recent news stories, that clients had concerns about insufficient oversight in unregulated environments.

All clinics who employ nurse or midwife prescribers need to review their protocols and ensure their practices meet these new requirements.

While England and Wales have not yet moved forward with legislation on non-surgical cosmetics, Scotland is the first country in the UK to take the step towards a

new safety bill. The bill aims to be in place by 2026. It follows a recent public consultation and aims to create a licensing scheme for non-surgical aesthetics. Procedures will fall into three groups, depending on their level of risk and the qualifications required to practise them. Ultimately the bill will require inspections of premises before granting of licences by Environmental Health officers. Meanwhile legislation permitting Healthcare Improvement Scotland to regulate a wider range of independent healthcare services, including non-surgical cosmetic procedures provided by independent pharmacists and pharmacy technicians, has already begun to be put in place.