Regulation for plastic surgery in UK?

From the Herald today:

It is a modern gold-rush founded on human vanity and the search for eternal youth. But today's prospectors are surgeons, not miners, and the lives they risk are not their own but those of their mostly female clients, lured with impossible promises of anatomical perfection.

In an astonishing attack on the booming cosmetic surgery industry, Nigel Mercer, president of the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (Baaps), and himself a practising cosmetic surgeon in Bristol, says it is time to call a halt to the unregulated trade.

Increasing numbers of medical and non-medical practitioners have entered the market over the past decade, drawn by the huge profits. But the casualties of the boom, seduced by the prospect of bigger breasts, tighter stomachs or more lustrous skin, are the patients doomed to disappointment.

"We have reached a stage where public expectation, driven by media hype and, dare one say, professional greed, has brought us to a 'perfect storm' in the cosmetic surgical market," Mr Mercer said.

Click through for the rest of the article.

Mercer points out that the kind of full-on marketing approach taken in appearance medicine in the UK is not allowed in other areas of health, although I'm not sure that's entirely true here, what with the open-slather advertising for prescription medications we allow.