Australians spend in excess of $1 billion in cosmetic procedures each year according to the Australasian College of Cosmetic Surgery and Medicine. This figure includes beauty treatments from non-medical practitioners.

Anyone with a medical degree can advertise as a Cosmetic Surgeon.

Join Bill Madden, Special Counsel at Carroll & O'Dea Lawyers (Sydney), and frequent writer, speaker and University lecturer on civil liability medical litigation, and Justine Anderson, Associate at Carroll & O'Dea Lawyers (Sydney) and Executive Committee member of the Women Lawyers Association of NSW, as they talk about the area where medical practitioners operate, and what protections, if any, consumers currently have in the marketplace.

In this episode we discuss:

What implications are there for the uninformed consumer given the information asymmetries in the complex delivery of surgical services?
Do doctors have a duty to disclose to patients their qualifications or lack thereof?
Does the duty of disclosure in Rogers v Whitaker (1992) 175 CLR 479 extend from disclosure of risks arising from the procedures to disclosure of risks arising from the lack of qualification of the doctor?
Even if someone is trained as a surgeon under the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons programme, say a colorectal surgeon - Is there any law or regulation that requires them to not perform a breast augmentation?
Are there any regulations or law currently that address issues of the consumer-patient lacking independent advice from their GP who usually acts as a 'gatekeeper' for referral to surgeons, and doctors' duties to shareholders of their corporate employers conflicting with their duties to their patients?
How do you think the medical regulator the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) should approach these issues - What would a proposed regulatory framework look like?
What are your thoughts on making some disclosures mandatory, such as doctor's qualifications and mandatory benchmarking against other practitioners who practice in the same field?
What are some ways consumers can protect themselves from misleading advertisements on the internet?

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Learn more about Bill:
- Bill's website page: https://www.codea.com.au/lawyers/bill-madden/
- Bill's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maddenbill/?originalSubdomain=au

Learn more about Justine:
- Justine's website page: https://www.codea.com.au/lawyers/justine-anderson/
- Justine's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justine-anderson-19b60257/?originalSubdomain=au