FAQs

Membership is specific to individuals and we do not offer group discounts.  CMAC supports personal professional development through education and shared experiences. Organisations might choose to sponsor an individual to act as ‘complications lead’, but sharing of CMAC member resources, passwords, helpline number our clinical help email address or access to the Facebook forum would be a breach of our terms and conditions. Members found in breach of terms and conditions of membership would have their membership privileges withdrawn.

CMAC has considered inclusion and exclusion criteria very carefully.  It is certainly not our intention for our membership criteria to be an indication of who can and who cannot practice safely or competently in medical aesthetics.

CMAC recognizes that registration by one regulator or another does not in itself represent competency in medical aesthetics, and that there is no legal restriction on anyone choosing to practice in aesthetics.

We have agreed the inclusion criteria on the objective facts that only the GMC, NMC, GPhC and GDC recognize medical aesthetics as within scope of practice for their registrants.

The HCPC Policy Director has advised the following;

‘Our position to date has been that, whilst we do not prescribe or limit the scope of practice for our professions, there is a difference between the 'legally permitted' scope of practice from the HCPC’s perspective (the limit of a registrant’s skills, knowledge and experience, subject to any legal restrictions) and what the profession itself considers to be their legitimate scope of practice.

We are aware that a number of professional bodies for our prescribing professions consider cosmetic practice to be outside the scope of practice for their profession. This includes the College of Paramedics and the Chartered Society of Physiotherapists (CSP). This therefore means that registrants from these professions will be unable to secure insurance for their cosmetic practice work through their professional body. 

 In addition, prescribing rights are tied to a registrant’s protected title. Therefore, a registrant would not be able to rely on their prescribing rights whilst practising outside the scope of their registered profession. Guidance set by professional bodies can be very clear in this regard. The CSP on their website states ‘physiotherapists cannot prescribe medicines for purely cosmetic purposes’, for example. 

There appears to be an increasing number of registrants moving into this area, despite concerns by their professional bodies that this is out of scope. This is of concern to us, particularly as we are working towards increasing medicines and prescribing rights for our professions. Misuse of these entitlements could preclude future professions from gaining these rights, impacting the care they are able to provide their patients’. 

Whilst CMAC recognizes that there are non-prescribing nurses, midwives, hygienists and dental therapists that may be very knowledgeable, competent and safe, the fact remains that when a complication arises, a prescriber must share care and responsibility, and direct the assessment and decision making throughout the management process.

Prescription medicines, with the exception of adrenaline in the event of an anaphylaxis, should not be administered without a direction to do so from the prescriber (see CMAC Prescribing partnership agreement).

Membership inclusion makes a distinction between pharmacists and Clinical Prescribing Pharmacists. Due to evolving clinical roles, the traditional idea of the pharmacist is very different to what is in found current practice. It is common for clinical pharmacists to hold specialist roles, responsible for clinical care, procedures and case management beyond the prescribing and dispensing of medicines. In addition to this Pharmacists can undertake their Advanced Clinical Practitioner (ACP) qualification, a role which involves significant clinical responsibility and carries a protected title. For these reasons we include and specify clinical prescribing pharmacists. Pharmacists who are prescribers, or non-prescribing pharmacists with a post graduate diploma in clinical pharmacy, can join CMAC. Non-prescribers must join with their prescribers and both parties must agree to the Prescribing Partnership Agreement (PPA), or can join as Associate members.

The GDC has determined that for dentists, hygienists and dental therapists, medical aesthetics, whilst not within the scope of dentistry specifically, is within their skill set and is included for the purposes of GDC Standards and regulation. Therefore, if we are to include dentists, we cannot reasonably exclude dental hygienists and dental therapists, who can join on the same terms as other included professions.

An important function of CMAC will be to gather data, to inform our protocols and identify learning needs. For the time-being, we have no plans to extend our inclusion criteria, but we will keep under review based on data, patient outcomes and any changes in regulation.

When making these decisions we were mindful of our primary goal to improve patient outcomes and the quality of learning, and to gather data. We accept that both will be limited to some extent, by the fact that we may be excluding a significant number of practitioners treating patients and encountering complications, however, a data set which reflects those regulated professions for whom medical aesthetics is deemed within scope, will be of value.

It is important that your prescriber is a member also because when you have a complication they will be sharing care and responsibility with you, and our clinical support team may need to communicate and support both of you. We also feel it’s important that your prescriber is on-board with our principles, the terms of your prescribing partnership and our advice and guidelines. This is all designed to ensure you are properly supported and your practice is safe, should a complication arise. Please encourage your prescriber to join also.

CMAC is all about the management of complications.  Whilst dermal fillers are not prescription only, when complications arise prescription medicines are often required. Non-prescribing practitioners must have support from a prescriber who can share care and accountability in these circumstances, no matter how experienced and competent you are, you cannot manage complications alone, if you cannot prescribe. It is not legitimate to administer hyaluronidase without a valid prescription and patient specific direction (from your prescriber). 

You may join as a Associate member for access to all the educational resources.

No matter what profession, all statutory bodies require prescribers to prescribe WITHIN their field of practice and be competent (and be able to evidence competency- should a Fitness to Practice investigation arise) to do so.

CMAC cannot advise beyond the legislation or the standards set by your professional regulator. Different regulations and standards may apply to different professions and in different countries.  In the United Kingdom only doctors, dentists and vets can hold stock medicines. Stock medicines are those that have been supplied without a patient specific prescription and are not labelled with a patients name. 

Only regulated pharmacies or companies with a wholesale dealers license can supply prescription only medicines. Pharmacies in the UK can only supply medicines as stock to CQC/HIS or HIW regulated premises. 

With the exception of adrenaline, which can be administered (but not supplied) without a patient specific direction, should you have a medicine dispensed and labelled for a named patient, non-prescribing nurses and midwives will need a direction to administer, by their prescriber, documented in the patient record.

In the matter of prescription only medicines which need to be administered quickly in an emergency in aesthetics, and legislation, there is a clear conflict between our obligation to practice safely and in the patients best interests and compliance with the legislation.

CMAC have no authority to recommend you act outside of regulations and best practice standards.  The highest authority will be your professional regulator and they cannot suggest or authorise behaviours which breach legislation.

You must demonstrate practice whereby you can evidence there has been a thorough risk assessment to justify your actions, omissions and decisions and in the interests of patient safety at all times.

If you are supplied hyaluronidase for example, against a patient specific prescription, and in an emergency situation (a vascular occlusion) need to administer the hyaluronidase prescribed for Mrs. Jones, to Mrs, Smith, you have not harmed Mrs. Jones and protected Mrs. Smith. If you are a prescriber, you can document the assessment and decision making and also document your administration as a prescriber. If you are not a prescriber, you must contact your prescriber and involve them in the assessment and diagnosis. They must give you a direction to administer and this must be documented. It may be that in the moment, they are not able to physically attend, so the assessment must be a remote one in the short term) like a verbal order over the phone in a hospital). The more thorough the assessment (i.e., if not face to face then by video call) the better.

It is best to have a written protocol agreed with your prescriber in advance of any such event. See The Prescribing Partnership Agreement template we have prepared (members' area).

No refund or partial refund is given. The subscription fee is a contribution towards the administration and running of the collaborative. This is outlined in our Terms and Conditions found on our website, including the Membership Terms and Conditions.

If you joined after April 2022 your subscription will auto-renew.

Your subscription is valid for twelve months (12). For your convenience you will be reminded one month before and again two weeks before your membership is due to expire. 

You have the option to do nothing and your membership will be renewed automatically, or switch to manual renewal at any time, in which case it will expire unless you choose to renew. You can do this in the subscriptions section in the members area by clicking the drop down where you can choose to change your membership renewal to manual, or to cancel your membership. Alternatively, you can do this by emailing office@cmac.world 

The CMAC Refund Policy can be found on our website, as well as the CMAC Membership Terms & Conditions. It’s important you read these to familiarise yourself with the terms of your membership before joining.