The words you meet while choosing a clinic and reading a quote, defined plainly. Most of the confusion in private aesthetics is not about biology but about vocabulary: who is registered with whom, what a consultation fee buys, and which of the words on a price list mean something legally.
Also known as: St Marylebone.
The district of central London north of Oxford Street and south of Regent's Park, covering roughly the W1G, W1U and W1H postcodes. It is unusual among central London districts in being genuinely residential as well as commercial, which is why its private practice sits above shops on ordinary streets rather than in a single medical quarter.
The retail and restaurant stretch around Marylebone High Street and Moxon Street, and the name most often used for the northern, residential half of the district. It is a marketing name applied by the estate that owns much of the land rather than an administrative boundary, so it has no fixed edges.
Also known as: HSMA.
The cluster of private healthcare buildings around Harley Street, Wimpole Street, Devonshire Place and Weymouth Street, promoted collectively under that name by the estate that owns most of it. The area sits inside Marylebone rather than beside it, which is why a clinic can accurately describe itself as being in both.
Source: www.harleystreetmedicalarea.com
A postal address on or near Harley Street. A street name cannot be legally protected, so the term is not licensed or regulated and no qualification, inspection or approval attaches to holding one. It tells you where a room is. It tells you nothing about who is treating you in it, which is why the checks below matter more than the postcode.
An arrangement under which an independent clinician is permitted to treat patients at premises they do not own, such as a private hospital, a clinic or a members' club. It is how most of central London's private aesthetic practice actually works, and it means the person treating you and the building you are treated in can be two entirely separate businesses.
Source: www.cqc.org.uk
A clinician renting a treatment room by the session rather than holding a lease. Common across this district and not in itself a concern, but it changes who is accountable for what: the room provider is responsible for the premises, and the clinician remains responsible for your care, your records and your aftercare.
Also known as: Care Quality Commission registration.
Registration with the regulator of health and social care providers in England. Not every cosmetic injectable service requires it, because the requirement follows the type of activity rather than the setting, so its absence is not automatically a red flag. Where a provider is registered, the inspection report is public and worth reading.
Source: www.cqc.org.uk
The public list a regulated clinician appears on: the GMC for doctors, the GDC for dentists, the NMC for nurses and midwives, the GPhC for pharmacists. Each is searchable free by name, and each shows whether the registration is current and whether any restriction applies. Checking one takes about a minute and is the single most useful thing a prospective patient can do.
Source: www.nmc.org.uk
The named individual accountable to the regulator for how a registered service is run day to day. Where a clinic is CQC-registered, this person is listed on the public register alongside the provider. Where a service is not registered, no such named accountability exists, which is worth knowing rather than worth panicking about.
Source: www.cqc.org.uk
Also known as: Medical indemnity, Professional indemnity.
The insurance or discretionary cover that pays if a patient is harmed and makes a claim. Regulated clinicians are required to hold it for the work they do, but cover is specific to the procedures declared, so a clinician can be properly indemnified for one treatment and not for another. It is a reasonable question to ask directly.
Source: www.jccp.org.uk
The written plan for what happens if something goes wrong: who you contact out of hours, who assesses you, and where you are sent if you need care the clinic cannot give. A clinic operating one afternoon a week in a hired room still needs one. Asking what it is tends to be more revealing than asking about the treatment.
Source: www.jccp.org.uk
A charge for the assessment appointment itself. It is often described as redeemable, meaning it is deducted from the cost of treatment if you go ahead. A fee that is only redeemable creates a quiet pressure to proceed, so it is worth asking what happens to it if the honest answer at the assessment is that you should not have the treatment.
The written record of what is proposed: the areas, the number of sessions, the intervals, the total cost and the review date. You should leave an assessment holding one. A verbal figure given in a room with a mirror in it is not a plan, and it cannot be compared with anything.
Source: www.jccp.org.uk
Also known as: Reflection period.
A deliberate gap between the assessment and the first treatment, so the decision is not made in the room where it is being sold. Two weeks is the interval commonly recommended for elective cosmetic procedures. A clinic that offers to treat you the same day is not necessarily doing anything wrong, but the offer is a sales structure and should be recognised as one.
Source: www.jccp.org.uk
A price quoted for one anatomical region rather than for a whole appointment. It is the most common reason two quotes that look far apart are actually the same, or look identical and are not. Always establish whether a figure covers one area or several, and one session or a full course, before comparing it with anything.
A single price covering a planned series of sessions, usually at a discount to the per-session rate. It is normal and often sensible, and it also means paying in advance for appointments you have not yet had. Ask what happens to the balance if you stop partway, and whether the clinic holds the funds if it ceases trading.
A review after treatment to check how the area has responded. Whether it is included, charged for, or not offered at all is one of the sharpest differences between clinics at similar prices, and it is rarely on the price list. It matters more where the clinician works from a hired room, because availability between sessions is not guaranteed by the building.
Source: www.jccp.org.uk
Prescribing an injectable medicine for a patient the prescriber has not personally assessed, for example by telephone or video. Professional regulators consider it unacceptable for injectable cosmetic medicines. It is not relevant to every treatment, since not everything injected is a prescription medicine, but where it applies the standard is unambiguous.
Source: www.jccp.org.uk
A regulated product that works physically rather than pharmacologically, and which therefore is not a prescription medicine. The distinction changes who may legally administer a product and how it may be advertised, and it is a large part of why the rules covering two treatments on the same price list can differ so sharply.
Source: www.gov.uk
The UK rules governing how health and beauty treatments may be promoted. They restrict outcome claims that cannot be substantiated, restrict testimonials referring to conditions needing medical supervision, and prohibit advertising prescription-only medicines to the public. A clinic naming a prescription medicine in a public advert is breaking a rule that exists to protect you.
Source: www.asa.org.uk
A voluntary list of practitioners who have submitted to an assessment of their training, insurance and premises. Appearing on one is a positive signal and its absence is not proof of anything, because the schemes are optional and paid for. It supplements a statutory register rather than replacing it.
Source: www.saveface.co.uk
Also known as: UNTIL Health Concierge.
The route by which an enquiry made here reaches somebody who can actually examine you. Because this site holds no clinic of its own, it cannot book you an appointment; it can only pass the enquiry to the UNTIL group, which operates the club at 1 Orchard Street and knows which registered clinicians hold clinic in this district. No fee attaches to the introduction in either direction.