Regulating beauty industry

Dr Hon Helena WONG’s original motion: (Translation)

That in recent years the beauty industry in Hong Kong has been developing rapidly and providing a range of services over and above general beauty care needs, which even include invasive medical beauty services the effectiveness of which is in doubt; recently, a beauty treatment centre gave intravascular infusions to some 40 consumers, with the consequence that four women sustained septic shock, and one of them had even passed away unfortunately; the incident has aroused public concern about the risks of invasive medical beauty services, the conduct and responsibility of individual beauty service providers and medical practitioners as well as the regulation of medical devices; in this connection, this Council calls on the industry to immediately stop high-risk invasive medical acts, and urges the Government to expeditiously enact legislation to regulate the conduct and services of the beauty industry; the relevant measures should include:

(a) to clearly define high-risk and invasive medical procedures, and require that only professionally qualified healthcare personnel may carry out such procedures;

(b) to stipulate that the industry and healthcare personnel must clearly and fully disclose in advance the risks and possible after-effects to the customers who are intending to receive the treatments;

(c) to clearly define the responsibilities that the industry and healthcare personnel must bear after the occurrence of incidents;

(d) to implement a medical device registration system, and require that only professionally qualified persons may operate such devices; and

(e) to amend the relevant legislation, and incorporate a ‘cooling-off period’ for selling beauty services into the Trade Descriptions (Unfair Trade Practices) (Amendment) Ordinance 2012, which will come into force next year, to combat unfair trade practices,

with a view to upgrading the industry’s conduct and standard of services for the protection of public health.

Motion as amended by Dr Hon LEUNG Ka-lau: (Translation)

That in recent years the beauty industry in Hong Kong has been developing rapidly and providing a range of services over and above general beauty care needs, which even include invasive medical beauty services the effectiveness of which is in doubt; recently, a beauty treatment centre gave intravascular infusions to some 40 consumers, with the consequence that four women sustained septic shock, and one of them had even passed away unfortunately; the incident has aroused public concern about the risks of invasive medical beauty services, the conduct and responsibility of individual beauty service providers and medical practitioners as well as the regulation of medical devices; in this connection, this Council calls on the industry to immediately stop high- risk invasive medical acts, and urges the Government to expeditiously enact legislation to regulate the conduct and services of the beauty industry; the relevant measures should include:

(a) to clearly define high-risk and invasive medical procedures, and require that only professionally qualified healthcare personnel may carry out such procedures;

(b) to amend the Medical Registration Ordinance stipulating that companies which actually or claim to engage in medical business must have more than half of their directors being registered medical practitioners, so that the Medical Council of Hong Kong has legal basis to require registered medical practitioners serving as directors to ensure the operation of such companies in compliance with professional conduct, otherwise it may take disciplinary action and even remove their names from the register of medical practitioners;

(b)(c) to stipulate that the industry and healthcare personnel must clearly and fully disclose in advance the risks and possible after-effects to the customers who are intending to receive the treatments;

(c)(d) to clearly define the responsibilities that the industry and healthcare personnel must bear after the occurrence of incidents;

(d)(e) to implement a medical device registration system, and require that only professionally qualified persons may operate such devices; and

(e)(f) to amend the relevant legislation, and incorporate a ‘cooling-off period’ for selling beauty services into the Trade Descriptions (Unfair Trade Practices) (Amendment) Ordinance 2012, which will come into force next year, to combat unfair trade practices,

with a view to upgrading the industry’s conduct and standard of services for the protection of public health.

Note: Dr Hon LEUNG Ka-lau’s amendment is marked in bold and italic type or with deletion line.