A New Zealand cosmetic surgery is offering doctors a two-day training course in Manchester, England, with the promise of a franchise for those who pass the course, according to British newspaper the Independent. This ‘McDonaldisation’ of cosmetic surgery has led to an increase in cosmetic surgery treatments being carried out by unqualified or insufficiently qualified people.

BAAPS has said the high-pressure sales techniques and ‘cowboy’ operators were fuelling a massive market in cosmetic surgery procedures such as Botox, face peels and laser treatments, and patients are at risk of serious complications, injuries and possibly even death.

The Manchester conference was initially aimed at British GPs who paid £2,000 to attend the weekend. After practising Botox injections on volunteers on the hotel’s staff, the GPs could opt to pay £35,000 for enough equipment to start their own practice and 10% of all operating profits.

In the UK, there is little that can be done to stop the rise of these sorts of seminars as the British Government recently did a U-Turn on the regulation of the cosmetic surgery industry. This means that the market is essentially unregulated and anyone can start up a business with little or no knowledge. Unfortunately, there are more and more people reporting problems with service with a quarter of all complaints to the Healthcare Commission being about ‘simple’ cosmetic surgery procedures such as Botox and chemical peels.