TV doctor slams Apprentice Botox clinics

Leah Totton's Apprentice win has angered TV's Doctor Christian.

Dr Christian Jessen called into question how wise it was to put a junior doctor in charge of a cosmetic procedures clinic chain without anyone overseeing her work.

He tweeted: "Alan Sugar has certainly not done patient safety and medical aesthetics any favours by promoting very junior doc 2 run Botox/filler clinics!"

The Embarrassing Bodies doctor went on: "The apprentice winner in question may well be entirely competent but I do sorry (sic) about the image projected on the show of these procedures.

"As the medical director who will be her senior to guide her when things go wrong?!"

He also brought up the issue of how safe the treatments actually were: "I wonder if you know that there was a recent case of a patient rendered completely blind in one eye after having facial fillers...?"

Leah, who is launching skin clinic Dr Leah with new business partner Lord Sugar and the £250,000 prize money, insisted throughout The Apprentice that she was offering a safe option for those who wanted facial fillers or skin peels.

She said: "The reason I went into this process is because there's been a lot of press coverage this year about these procedures being done inappropriately in non-clinical environments by people who are not medical health professionals and that is the reason why I've done the show."

 

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 

An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.