A mystery shop organised by Consumer NZ has found seven beauty clinics guilty of bad practice. The mystery shopper visited 46 clinics across the country, asking them to remove a raised skin spot. While a majority of the clinics took the right course of action by referring the client to a GP, seven clinics in Auckland were willing to use a variety of treatments to take off a raised legion on the shoppers arm.
Ametrine Rose Health & Beauty, The Eye & Face Institute, Parisian Clinic, and Beauty forever all offered to use laser treatment on the spot while Amax Laser Hair Removal offered to cut the legion out and Laser Clinics New Zealand offered a skin-needling treatment. Q Medispa in Onehunga Heights even went as far to say that the clinic would soon have a machine they could use to electrocute the spot off.
“Given New Zealand’s high skin cancer rate, we think beauty therapists should steer clear of this type of treatment and leave diagnosis to the doctors,” said Sue Chetwin, chief executive, Consumer NZ.
Auckland Council's health and hygiene code of practice states only health practitioners should remove skin lesions, alongside the New Zealand Association of Registered Beauty Therapists ban on removing unidentifiable lesion and skin tags without permission from a medical professional. However, none of the clinics visited in Auckland were members of the optional association.
