01/04/2026
‼️ Update - Scottish Medical Aesthetics Safety Group (SMASG) – Public Position Statement
The Scottish Medical Aesthetics Safety Group exists to promote patient safety, ethical practice, and high clinical standards within non-surgical aesthetics.
SMASG members do not engage in the teaching, or delivery of training courses, access programmes, supervision pathways, or competency sign-off for non-medical practitioners who provide invasive injectable treatments. This includes the enablement, expansion, or legitimise the delivery of prescription-only or otherwise invasive injectable procedures by individuals who are not regulated medical professionals.
Why we are taking this position
Our decision is based on patient safety and the realities of clinical competence:
📒 Safe injectable practice is inseparable from medical training and clinical exposure:
▶️ Invasive injectable treatments require more than technical injection skills. Safe practice depends on the ability to:
▶️ take a comprehensive medical history and assess risk factors,
▶️ recognise red flags and contraindications,
▶️ conduct ethical consultations and obtain valid informed consent,
▶️ understand anatomy, pharmacology, and disease processes in depth,
▶️ make safe clinical judgments when presentations are unclear or evolving.
📕 Managing complications requires real-world emergency and acute-care experience
Even in the best hands, complications can occur. Managing events such as vascular compromise, severe allergic reactions, infection, necrosis, or other acute presentations requires clinicians who can respond immediately, calmly, and correctly, drawing on extensive experience in:
▶️ recognising deterioration early,
▶️ emergency assessment and escalation,
▶️ appropriate treatment pathways and referral,
▶️ documentation and follow-up care.
AND A PRESCRIBING HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONAL ON SITE AT ALL TIMES!
These capabilities are developed through substantial supervised clinical practice within regulated healthcare settings—not through short or modular aesthetics courses.
📗 Public protection relies on professional regulation and accountability. Regulated medical professionals have a clear framework of:
✅ professional standards and scope of practice,
✅ mandatory governance and fitness-to-practise oversight,
✅ clinical accountability, documentation standards, and safeguarding duties,
✅ pathways for complaints, investigation, and sanction.
‼️ Where this level of accountability is absent, there is a higher risk of non-compliance and unsafe practice, and fewer effective mechanisms for public recourse when things go wrong.
Our commitment
SMASG supports robust regulation and higher standards across the sector, and we will continue to:
✅ advocate for patient safety–led policy,
✅ support evidence-based education for regulated medical practitioners,
✅ promote ethical practice, transparent consent, and complication preparedness,
✅ engage constructively with regulators and government to improve public protection.
❤️ Message to the public
If you are considering invasive injectable treatments, we encourage you to seek care from a regulated healthcare professional working within a NHS/HIS regulated setting where there are clear complication pathways and accountability.
This statement reflects SMASG’s patient safety position and our commitment to responsible practice in Scotland. 🎓😇
