Patient Safety Diamond
The four facets of the patient safety diamond have been produced by ISAPS to educate the public about the need to follow the four simple steps before having surgery.
- Procedure
It is important that the patient fully understands the procedure including possible complications. We have provided a comprehensive Patient education resource on this website that will walk you through your procedure with animated video and audio of most plastic surgery procedures. You should watch the video, then print the procedure document so that you can read all of the information about the procedure at your leisure. The document is separated into sections so write notes on the document that you want to ask the surgeon in your consultation. It is important that you have a consultation with the surgeon who will perform your procedure so that you can feel comfortable with him, but you should never make a decision at the meeting, go away and think about what you have learned to ensure that you have all of your questions answered and that it is your decision to go ahead with the procedure.
- Surgeon
You need to ensure that the surgeon is not only board certified, but that he or she have the correct qualifications to perform your procedure. This is very important and is one of the fundamental reasons why UKAAPS was established. In the UK a GMC (General Medical Council) registered ENT (Ear, Nose and Throat) surgeon can perform cosmetic surgery procedures to include the two most requested and therefore profitable procedures of Liposuction and Breast augmentation, which clearly are below the area where you would consider an ENT surgeon is qualified to perform a procedure. The GMC specialist register which all UKAAPS surgeons belong was established for surgeons who wanted to train and specialise in Aesthetic plastic surgery. UKAAPS is the only association that is not only promoting a higher education for cosmetic surgeons, but has a new qualification and stature for its members who fulfil a certain criteria of specialism. To put this in a simplistic way, you would not expect a garage to have an exhaust specialist working on your brakes.
- Facility
Before selecting your surgeon you must ensure that the location and facility where the treatment will take place is approved by a professional body like the CQC, Trent or JCI been the most recognised. Once again the regulations for facilities vary from country to country so it is important that your research where the procedure will take place. All CAPS certified surgeons have had their facilities inspected.
- Patient
The sign of a good surgeon is one that turns a patient away if they feel that the patient is not right for the requested procedure. There are many reasons why a surgeon may come to this conclusion, but unrealistic expectations is one of the biggest and sometimes it is that the surgeon does not think that the patient is having the surgery for the right reasons or their medical record shows that they could be at high risk for complications. All UKAAPS members clients are screened through a pre medical questionnaire that has been designed to identify possible high risk patients. This does not mean that they cannot have the surgery, just that a follow up or consultation would be required before agreeing to perform the procedure.
