BY: Jessica Jaganathan

THE days of the 'cowboy practice' are numbered.

From Nov 1, doctors will have to get permission before they can offer a range of controversial aesthetic treatments.

The Singapore Medical Council's (SMC) newly established Aesthetic Practice Oversight Committee will decide who will be allowed to offer these treatments that are not backed by strong scientific evidence.

Promising weight loss and fairer skin among other results, they should be offered only as a last resort, after all conventional methods have been exhausted.

No advertisements of these treatments are allowed too.

Doctors will be also have to get written consent from patients and record every detail of the treatment and the results, just as in a clinical trial for a new drug.

This regime will apply to seven aesthetic treatments, including fat-busting mesotherapy, where drugs are injected into the body.

Aesthetic treatments have been the subject of much debate over the last three months, after the health authorities raised concerns about the number of doctors branching out into lucrative beauty treatments, some of which are banned in other countries.

Yesterday, details were released about how the profession plans to regulate some 30 aesthetic procedures, within a week of the Health Ministry coming out with stricter rules for liposuction.

Professor Ho Lai Yun from the Academy of Medicine said: 'At the moment, it's a cowboy type of practice.' With the guidelines, he added: 'Patients will know who they can go to, what are the procedures available to them, what they can expect...So, to a greater extent, they are protected.'

For instance, filler injections to plump up lips can be done by plastic surgeons and GPs in a clinic. More invasive procedures, like breast enhancement surgery, can only be done by a plastic surgeon in an operating theatre.

Although general practitioners are allowed to do most of the less invasive aesthetic procedures, they will need proper credentials - they must attend an accredited course recognised by SMC and attain a certificate of competence.

Doctors who flout these guidelines may be referred to the SMC for disciplinary hearing, where, depending on the case, they could be fined or even suspended.

The profession's watchdog is already investigating the aesthetic medicine practices of six doctors, including a specialist.

Madam Halimah Yacob, chairman of the Government Parliamentary Committee for Health, said the guidelines were a good start to enhance patient safety but cautioned that consumers may be driven to beauty salons instead.

She said: 'These treatments if not done properly can lead to serious complications...it does not make sense to insist that only doctors be subject to these guidelines while beauty salons are free to operate without any rules even for invasive procedures.'