Working Group on Differentiation between Medical Procedures and Beauty Services concludes its discussion at today's meeting
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     The Director of Health, Dr Constance Chan, today (July 5) chaired the third meeting of the Working Group on Differentiation between Medical Procedures and Beauty Services. In the meeting, consensus has been reached in formulating recommendations on procedures which should be conducted by registered medical practitioners.

     Based on the valuable discussions in the past two meetings, members of the Working Group at the meeting today went on to deliberate on the potential risks of certain cosmetic procedures and concluded that high-risk cosmetic procedures should be regulated. Some procedures, such as those involving injections of botulinum toxin A and dermal filler, should be regarded as medical procedures to be performed by registered medical practitioners.

     In addition, members also examined the safety and health risks of certain devices used in beauty procedures that might be posed to the operators and clients in their previous discussions. However, given the heterogeneity of energy-emitting devices, some of which may be used in beauty procedures, the Working Group supported the Administration's plan to introduce a new medical device legislation to deal with the issue of control over the use of selected high-risk medical devices.

     Today's meeting also summarised both the agreed and discrepant views in the last two rounds of discussion. These views, together with the recommendations endorsed by the Working Group today, will be consolidated into a Working Group Report for submission to the Steering Committee on Review of the Regulation of Private Healthcare Facilities in the third quarter of 2013.

Ends/Friday, July 5, 2013
Issued at HKT 17:52

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