GPs who have completed advanced surgical training beyond their fellowship should be allowed to adopt the title of ‘GP surgeon’, but untrained cosmetic doctors should be banned from using the surgeon term altogether, the RACGP says.

The college has suggested that doctors who call themselves cosmetic surgeons but don’t have the additional training should call themselves ‘cosmeticians’ — or just doctors.

Unlike ‘medical practitioner’, the term ‘surgeon’ is currently unregulated, meaning any doctor can use it.

But following a series of high-profile scandals in the cosmetic surgery industry, state and territory health ministers have launched a review asking whether ‘surgeon’ should be a restricted title.