Botched beauty treatments: Hong Kong clinics to be licensed to ensure quality of service, patient safety ‘starting as early as this year’
- Beauty clinics in spotlight over botched treatments, with several staff arrested, but enforcement of licensing rules held back because of lack of government medical staff
- Authorities also planning to reintroduce legislation stalled since 2018 to cover medical devices, according to source
Hong Kong clinics will have to obtain a licence as early as this year as authorities tighten up enforcement of rules after a string of botched beauty treatments, the Post has learned.
A registered doctor or dentist will have to be appointed the “chief medical executive” for each licensed clinic and the business must draw up rules to ensure the quality of services and safety of patients.
Clinics must also make public the prices of their services and set up procedures for handling complaints.
The measures were outlined on the Department of Health website, which also said that “small practice clinics” run by a single doctor or dentist or a group practice with fewer than five partners or directors could apply for a licence exemption.
The licensing requirement is part of the Private Healthcare Facilities Ordinance, passed in 2018 but not enforced across the board because of a shortage of medical staff.
The law was applied to private hospitals in 2019 and to day procedure centres in 2020 and 2020, but not to clinics or health services establishments.
Clinics were defined as premises that are not part of a hospital or a day procedure centre and provide medical services or minor procedures that do not require patients to stay overnight.