Botched procedures: No recourse for victims due to muddy regulations

Despite regulations requiring medical training to administer medical aesthetic procedures, scores of beauty centres with uncredentialled beauticians in the Klang Valley offer the services.

These include procedures like lasers and injectables, which are considered invasive under the Health Ministry’s Guidelines on Aesthetic Medical Practice published in 2020.

Worse, multiagency failure to enforce against such breaches by beauty centres, and blurry jurisdictional lines between agencies have left victims of botched procedures with little recourse.

Health Minister Dzulkefly Ahmad said his ministry does not permit beauty centres to administer surgical or invasive aesthetic procedures.

However, in 2023, the ministry received 306 complaints of botched aesthetic procedures done at centres not allowed to administer them, while 46 complaints were made as of November last year.

“The statistics of these complaints and treatments most likely do not reflect the actual situation of case complications that occur because this data does not include cases where treatment was received in private hospitals and there are many victims who are not ready to come forward to file a complaint,” the health minister said in a Nov 4 parliamentary reply.

Dzulkefly also maintained that the only individuals who could perform invasive aesthetic medical procedures were doctors who possessed the Letter of Credentialing and Privileging (LCP) for the aesthetic medical practice.

He added that it was an offence for such procedures to be carried out in beauty centres instead of premises registered under the Private Healthcare Facilities and Services Act 1998.

Victims sent from pillar to post

Despite this, a Health Ministry senior official said victims of botched procedures often find they are sent from pillar to post when they try to complain against a beautician.

“When the victim goes to the police, the police say that it is more relevant to the Medical Act, but when they go to the Health Ministry and the Malaysian Medical Council (MMC) to complain, they (the MMC) will say the individual is not a registered practitioner, so it’s out of their jurisdiction and then they reject (the complaint).

“So now, victims really don’t know where to go,” said the senior official who declined to be named as they are not authorised to speak to the media.

Sources within the industry said beauticians who administer medical procedures should be hauled up under Section 33 of the Medical Act 1971.

The section prohibits unqualified persons from practising medicine, and has a penalty of up to RM2,000 for a first-time offence.

However, the Health Ministry has yet to utilise the law despite its knowledge on the rampancy of beauty centres offering medical treatments.

The most the ministry has done is to order the beauty centres to cease their service, the senior official said, adding that this is insufficient to stop them.

READ MORE: Part 1 - Beauticians carrying out medical procedures, doctors concerned

The Health Ministry has yet to respond to requests for comment on why it is not cracking down against such practices.

‘Revoked’ guideline still cited

In 2022, then domestic trade and consumer affairs deputy minister Rosol Wahid also told Parliament that the beauty industry is unregulated and the government is reviewing the Beauty Industry Guidelines 2013 to close the loop.

The senior official said the guideline, which had initially allowed laser treatments to be administered by non-medically trained beauticians, was revoked in 2015 after the Health Ministry insisted that only medically trained practitioners can do so.

However, no public announcement was made about this revocation, leaving room for beauty centres to argue that they are in the right, the official said.

The Domestic Trade and Living Costs Ministry has yet to respond to requests for clarification.

Further muddying the waters is the fact that beauty centres are regulated by local councils, with councils generally allowing such procedures to be administered by beauticians.

For example, the Ampang Jaya Municipal Council said that there was no such requirement for doctors to be at the “beauty and healthcare centres”, and beauticians could also operate lasers provided that they possessed certification.

The Kuala Lumpur City Hall, meanwhile, said invasive procedures like lasers, high-intensity focused ultrasound (Hifu) treatments, and injections “can be applied under the beauty treatment (waxing, scrub, bleaching, tanning) licence category.”

The Kajang Municipal Council did require further documents but alluded that administering laser treatments was possible without a doctor after being informed of the 2013 guideline.

In Petaling Jaya, the city council requires a “professional certificate” for an individual to administer lasers and injections but did not specify if this refers to medical credentials.

The Health Ministry does not provide accreditation to beauticians.

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