Cosmetic / Plastic Surgery – Information for GPs
Referral criteria / commissioning position
Plastic surgery is routinely commissioned for patients undergoing treatment for:
- trauma and surgery; acute repair and acute reconstruction
- cancer surgery and reconstruction
- burns, acute care and reconstruction
Patients in these circumstances may be referred directly to secondary care
Cosmetic surgical procedures for the correction of changes associated with age, pregnancy, weight or because of unhappiness with body image are not routinely commissioned or performed
All requests for funding need to be made via the Individual Funding Request (IFR) Panel for in circumstances where:
- the patient is different to the general population of patients who would normally be refused the healthcare intervention
- there are good grounds to believe that the patient is likely to gain significantly more benefit from the procedure
Investigations prior to referral
None.
Information to include in referral letter
- Details of how the patient meets the criteria
- Treatments and interventions tried including the results
- Drug history (prescribed and non-prescribed)
- Relevant past medical/surgical history
- Current regular medication
- BMI
- Smoking status
- Alcohol consumption