Competent is not enough
In cosmetic surgery, competent is certainly as important as competent.
For all professions, education alone does not make you good at your job. For (cosmetic) doctors this is even more true. You naturally want the very best treatment and only someone who, in addition to being qualified, can give you that treatment.
Competent is not something extra; it is a legally established requirement for healthcare providers. The condition of competence combined with proficiency applies in particular to so-called “risky actions. These are actions that can cause damage to health if performed by someone who is not qualified and competent.
Reserved acts are a specific category of high-risk acts. They are actions that involve a high degree of risk. These acts are therefore reserved for physicians. However, under certain conditions, a physician may have such an act performed by another licensed healthcare provider (such as a nurse). An example of a reserved act is giving injections.
The Individual Healthcare Professions Act.
The law that establishes all this is the Individual Healthcare Professions Act (the BIG Act, 1993). You’ve probably come across the phrase “BIG-registered” at some point. According to the BIG Act, healthcare providers must be registered. This is only possible if they are qualified. Article 36 of the BIG Act lists the high-risk activities of which 14 are reserved. Article 35.a establishes who may perform these acts.
Providing care with personal responsibility
With the introduction of the BIG Act in 1997, the absolute ban on the unauthorized practice of medicine, as laid down in Thorbecke’s Law on the Practice of Medicine (WUG) of 1865, lapsed. The BIG Act was introduced because there was a desire to give more freedom to the practice of individual health care and to enable as many people as possible to provide care with their own responsibility.
The intent was to regulate only that which is truly necessary from a “safe care” perspective. In particular, this concerned actions by professionals that, if performed incompetently or carelessly, pose significant risks to patients.
The purpose of the BIG Act is twofold:
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- monitoring and promoting the quality of professional practice and
- protecting patients from incompetent and careless actions by professionals.
There is talk here not only of competence but also of expertise. In practice, authority and competence are usually referred to instead of expertise. There is an overlap between these terms. Competence can be defined as having all the necessary papers and registrations. Expertise could be seen more broadly, not just having all the papers, but also ensuring that knowledge and skill are maintained and developed. In short, knowing what you are doing. Actually, expertise is the combination of competence and skill.
It is also established that the professions within healthcare, through their professional associations, determine the requirements of expertise themselves in consultation with the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport (VWS).
Upcoming amendment to BIG law
In 2022, the cabinet has decided to amend the BIG Act. One of the changes will be a clearer indication of which healthcare provider may perform which reserved actions. Another important change is a better guarantee that patients will be treated by competent and skilled healthcare providers. A BIG Council will be appointed to advise on the criteria for reserved procedures.
In summary, competency and competence of health care providers is an important topic of great interest.
How do you become competent?
Competency is a clear concept. Through training and certification, you become competent. This is mainly theoretical knowledge, even though it is practiced in practice.
How do you become proficient?
Competence is more difficult to determine. This is a less objective concept. To a large extent, the practitioner will have to determine for himself whether he is competent. However, general criteria can be established by the relevant professional groups or clinics.
General criteria for competence may include:
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- experience
- number of treatments
- frequency
- customer satisfaction
- mandatory record keeping.
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The official definition of proficiency is:
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- the (qualified) health care provider is competent if he/she: has knowledge of the operation, techniques, purpose, anatomy, risks, pre- and aftercare and possible complications;
- properly performs the act and ancillary activities, such as deciding and informing.
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That the doctors at Ivy clinics are competent speaks for itself. That the doctors at Ivy are competent is beyond question. We want to provide the very best care and therefore set very high standards for everyone who works with and for us. The competence of our doctors is based in part on experience gained from performing the same treatments many times. Practice makes perfect. Of course, this does not mean that anyone is practicing with us on our clients. The practitioners have practiced enough before joining Ivy clinics and have now mastered the art.
The competence of the practitioners is also enhanced by the specializations of the practitioners. For example, we have doctors who exclusively perform eyelid corrections and practitioners who exclusively give injectables. In addition, the practitioners keep up with all the new developments and techniques through continuing education and attending conferences.
Check whether a doctor is on the BIG register
Don’t sell yourself short! Check whether a doctor is qualified; it will always be stated on the website that the doctor is BIG registered (or search the BIG register). Whether a doctor is additionally competent is more difficult to determine. Go by other people’s experiences, see how long the doctor has been performing the specific procedure, etc.
At Ivy clinics, you can rest assured that the practitioners are qualified and competent.
