Hi Ashalina,
You have made your views perfectly clear in that you view doctors as being the only HCPs as being capable of injecting Botox. So how do you assess that your training to administer Botox is any better than that of nurses and /or BTs and are you confident that there are no poorly performing doctors in all specialities out there?
During your medical training you are not shown how to inject Botox for cosmetic purposes, nor are you shown how to write a prescription. In my 22 + years as a nurse i have shown many a junior doctor how to prescribe a medication as well as which one to choose, dosage, frequency etc. So just because you have a medical degree doesn't make you an expert in all aspects of medicine.
How did you become competent in Botox administration? Surely you undertook a similar training course or programme to the one I did? Would you be happy for an orthopaedic consultant who knew little about cosmetic injectables and had never used Botox before inject your face? Of course not.
Your interpretation of the the MHRA guidelines are very selective. Is this because you haven't really read them properly, don't understand them (which could obviously never happen as you are a doctor) or do you think that nurses and BTs are really that dim that we can't read either and are gullible enough to take in what are simply your opinions - not the law or guidelines?
MHRA on Botox;
1. Who can administer these medicines?
They can be:
a. self administered
b. administered by an appropriate practitioner
c. administered by anyone acting in accordance with* the* directions of an appropriate practitioner.
So apart from b., what is your take on a. and c. .????
The NMC would class a nurse who has done a Botox course and has achieved competence an appropriate practitioner. Does the GMC class any old doctor with no specific Botox training as 'appropriate'? I was asked to prescribe Botox for others a number of years ago. I declined as I knew little about Botox. Having done the course and achieved competency and gained experience it is within my scope of practice to prescribe it. Nurse prescribers should only prescribe within their scope of practice and this should stand for doctors and dentists as well, surely?
Below is point 10. From the very same document from MRHA. I don't think it needs any explanation. It is FACT, not mine or anyone else's opinion.
Nurse Independent Prescribers
10.* Can Nurse Independent Prescribers independently prescribe and administer injections for use in cosmetic procedures?
Yes. A Nurse Independent Prescriber can legally prescribe and administer licensed parenteral medicines such as Botox® in cosmetic procedures on his/her own initiative. However, as mentioned above the use of Botox for cosmetic treatment is outside the products licensed indications.* Nurse Independent Prescribers may prescribe medicines independently for uses outside their licensed indications (so called off-licence or off-label). They must however, accept professional, clinical and legal responsibility for that prescribing, and should only prescribe off-label where it is accepted clinical practice.
