The Ministry of Health has modified the decree on the authorisation of health centres to limit doctors with a speciality in plastic surgery from performing cosmetic surgery operations. The Minister of Health, Mónica García, defended this Saturday that with this measure, “we are moving towards a safer health system, avoiding intrusion and protecting patients”.
The ministerial order was approved on Wednesday, was published this Saturday in the Official State Gazette (BOE) and will come into force this Sunday. It has modified an annex of the 2003 decree, the one referring to the definition of a cosmetic surgery care unit.
From now on, these centres will only be admitted if “they are responsible for carrying out surgical treatments, with the aim of improving the aesthetics of the body, face or hair” and only “a doctor with a speciality in plastic, aesthetic and reconstructive surgery or another surgical or medical-surgical speciality in the field and competences indicated in the official programme of their speciality”.
Qualified professionals
In a press release, the Ministry stressed on Saturday that “the modification is necessary due to the increase in cosmetic procedures and the need to ensure that they are carried out by qualified professionals.”
“The significant increase in cosmetic surgery and the proliferation of centres offering them have generated a growing social and health demand for better control of this activity”, which is why the Ministry of Health intends to “guarantee that these procedures are carried out exclusively by professionals with the appropriate training and qualifications”.
He also recalled that in 2022 Congress approved a non-statutory proposal with the same objective: “to strengthen regulations to prevent intrusion and ensure that all healthcare activities are carried out by duly qualified professionals.”
The Minister of Health, Mónica García, highlighted in a video this Saturday: “This measure is, without a doubt, a huge victory for the family of Sara, a woman who unfortunately lost her life after undergoing an operation in a beauty centre that did not have the necessary guarantees.”
This is how he referred to Sara Gómez, a 39-year-old woman from Alcantarilla (Murcia) who died in January 2022 after liposculpture, a type of liposuction, which was performed on her in Cartagena.
“Her family’s struggle has been key to achieving this important change. We are taking an important step towards a safer health system, so that tragedies like Sara’s do not happen again,” Mónica García stressed.
Source: www.eldiario.es
