A spike in botched cosmetic surgery complaints, including concerns about a rise of procedures performed in NSW hotel rooms, has put the industry under the spotlight.
The NSW opposition has called for a change in laws to prevent practitioners with only the most basic medical qualification - a bachelor of medicine - from calling themselves surgeons.
Labor health spokesman Walt Secord says a loophole in regulation has given practitioners "free rein" to give themselves the title of surgeon.
"There are still cowboys in the cosmetic surgery sector and there is still a significant loophole for them to operate under," Mr Secord said in a statement on Wednesday.
"It only makes sense that if someone calls themselves a cosmetic surgeon, then they are a surgeon with the extra seven years training required to call themselves a surgeon."
He called on the state government to introduce laws that only allowed medical practitioners registered and trained in the specialty of surgery to use the title of "surgeon."
This would prohibit medical practitioners who are not specialists from using the title of "cosmetic surgeon."
His comments come ahead of a NSW joint-party parliamentary committee, which is holding on Wednesday a hearing on cosmetic health service complaints.
In a submission to the inquiry, the Health Care Complains Commission said there had been a rise in the number of complaints about cosmetic services to 94 in 2016/17 from 30 in 2012/13.
The commission said there had also been a rise in complaints about cosmetic procedures being performed in residential premises and hotel rooms in Sydney.
