Beware of the fraudulent
“practitioners” that offer Botox injections at health spas in Vancouver. According
to a news story on CBC News, spa staff members who aren’t physicians are
offering (and administering) Botox injections to customers.
Right now you’re
(probably) thinking: “who in their right
mind would accept Botox injections/prescriptions from anyone other than a
physician?”
That’s just the thing –
these spas have fake certificates all over their walls claiming that certain
staff members are fully qualified physicians, or “doctors,” (1). (If
Dr. Joe doesn’t have credential letters at the end of his name on his certificate/degree,
then how are we supposed to know what kind of doctor he is? He probably isn’t one).
Health Canada asserts, “Botox
should only be prescribed and administered by a physician” (1). Any other
method of prescription “would be considered to be a contravention of the Food
and Drugs Act…” meaning it would be against the law (1).
And how did these fraudulent
practitioners get their hands on Botox if they aren’t registered physicians?
According to one of these workers, he claims that he buys his Botox online and
without a prescription (1).
The ultimate question
stands: how are they getting away with the impersonation of a physician? Surely,
these people have been charged at least, right? Negative. According to Dr.
Martin Braun in an interview with CBC News, “Unfortunately the College of
Physicians is only regulating physicians right now. When I’ve asked them to
look at this, they say it is far too expensive and beyond their mandate” (1).
CBC News presented a few
tips for protection against fraudulent prescriptions of Botox:
Check the bottle. The bottle of Botox should have a bilingual hologram
label on it that says “Allergan.” This is the only company that makes Botox
that is marketed in Canada (1).
Avoid coupon deals. Doctors in Canada aren’t allowed to discount
prescriptions. Avoid these “deals” (1).
This information was
extracted from CBC News.
References
No comments:
Post a Comment