Get this right first: an aesthetic consent form is only as good as the conversation behind it, and the conversation counts for little if you cannot show that it happened. Across Europe, informed consent to treatment is a general principle, and the health details you collect on the form are special-category data under the GDPR. Use a form written for the specific procedure, record the discussion while it happens, and keep the records for as long as your national rules require. The sections below cover where to find templates, the seven fields every form should hold and how to keep consent records in a system rather than a drawer.<\/p>\n
\nTL;DR:<\/strong><\/p>\n
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- A consent form records a practitioner-led conversation; it doesn\u2019t replace it. Write the form for the specific treatment and note what the client understood.<\/li>\n
- Informed consent is a general principle in Europe (Article 5 of the Council of Europe\u2019s Oviedo Convention), but national rules for aesthetic treatments differ, so check yours.<\/li>\n
- Health answers on the form are special-category data under Article 9 of the GDPR. Keep treatment consent, data consent and photo or marketing consent as separate items.<\/li>\n
- Under the EU eIDAS Regulation, an electronic signature can\u2019t be refused legal effect just because it is electronic; whether a simple one is enough for treatment consent depends on national law and on the record behind it.<\/li>\n
- In Altegio you can attach signed forms to the client card, track consent in custom fields, limit access with team member permissions and collect forms by link or QR code through the FastSign (QR Forms) integration.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
For a fair-practice checklist on deposits in Europe, read prepaid appointments and deposits<\/a>.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nWhere to find a consent form template<\/h2>\n
You have four realistic sources for aesthetic consent forms: downloads from professional associations or chambers in your country, checklists published by insurers, commercial template libraries for the aesthetics sector, and configurable digital forms.<\/p>\n
Each has a weakness. Association downloads are trustworthy but generic; insurer checklists focus on risk rather than the clinical detail of a treatment; commercial libraries vary widely in quality, and many are written for another country\u2019s law. Whatever you use, check it against these questions before the first client signs it:<\/p>\n
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- Does it reflect the law of your country and the guidance of your professional body, rather than boilerplate copied from another sector or jurisdiction?<\/li>\n
- Is there space to record what the client understood, not just a signature line?<\/li>\n
- Does it capture the practitioner\u2019s name and role, and a professional registration number where your profession has one?<\/li>\n
- Can you edit fields for product, batch and dose without rebuilding the whole document?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
A digital form earns its place if it keeps the completed form with the client\u2019s record, lets you export it when an insurer or an authority asks, and shows which version of the wording a client actually saw. One point holds everywhere: a generic terms-and-conditions sheet is not a consent form.<\/p>\n
What European rules actually require<\/h2>\n
There is no single EU law on consent to aesthetic treatments. Three layers apply, and the detail depends on the country where you work.<\/p>\n
Informed consent to the treatment.<\/strong> The Council of Europe\u2019s Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine, known as the Oviedo Convention, sets the general rule in Article 5: an intervention in the health field may only be carried out after the person concerned has given free and informed consent. Before that, the person must receive appropriate information about the purpose and nature of the intervention, its consequences and its risks, and they may withdraw consent at any time. Many, but not all, European countries have ratified the convention, and each country has its own patient-rights or medical law that sets out how consent works in practice.<\/p>\n
National rules for aesthetic treatments.<\/strong> Whether a treatment counts as a medical procedure, who may perform injectables or other higher-risk treatments, and whether a waiting period is required before certain cosmetic procedures are decided nationally. These rules differ between countries, so check your own law and your professional body\u2019s guidance before you finalise a form.<\/p>\n
Data protection.<\/strong> Allergies, medication, medical history and other health answers on a consent form are data concerning health, which Article 9 of the GDPR (Regulation 2016\/679) lists among the special categories of personal data. Processing them is prohibited unless an exception applies, for example the client\u2019s explicit consent for a specified purpose, or processing for health care by or under the responsibility of a professional bound by professional secrecy. Member States may add further conditions for health data. Where you rely on consent, Article 7 requires you to be able to demonstrate that the client gave it.<\/p>\n
Treatment consent and data consent are two different things, and one signature does not have to cover both. Neither replaces the conversation: a signed form shows that a document was signed, while notes from the discussion show what the client was told and understood.<\/p>\n
The seven fields every treatment-specific consent form should contain<\/h2>\n
Build your form around these sections, in this order:<\/p>\n
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- Identifiers<\/strong> \u2013 client details, the practitioner\u2019s name and role (plus a registration number where one exists), the date and the clinic address.<\/li>\n
- Treatment specifics<\/strong> \u2013 the exact procedure, product name, batch or lot number, dose, and injection sites or treatment areas.<\/li>\n
- Material risks<\/strong> \u2013 common and serious risks, with room to note risks specific to this client\u2019s history or concerns.<\/li>\n
- Alternatives and the \u201cno treatment\u201d option<\/strong> \u2013 genuinely presented, not a token line.<\/li>\n
- Costs, follow-up plan and complication handling<\/strong> \u2013 what happens, and who pays, if something goes wrong.<\/li>\n
- Photography and media consent<\/strong> \u2013 kept separate from marketing permission. Under Article 7(2) of the GDPR, a consent request in a document that also covers other matters must be clearly distinguishable from them.<\/li>\n
- Declarations and sign-off<\/strong> \u2013 the client\u2019s confirmation of what they understood, dated signatures from both parties, and the template ID and version.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
Pro Tip:<\/strong> Give the client-specific risk box real prominence. An empty box next to \u201cany other risks discussed\u201d is hard to defend in a complaint, because it suggests the conversation was rushed or scripted.<\/em><\/p>\n
Treat clinical photos with care. Recital 51 of the GDPR says photographs are not automatically special-category data: they count as biometric data only when processed with specific technical means to identify a person. A before-and-after photo filed in a treatment record can still reveal information about health, so protect it like the rest of the record, and ask for separate, optional consent before you use any photo in marketing.<\/p>\n
Running consent properly: the practitioner-led workflow<\/h2>\n
Consent is a two-stage process: first the discussion, then the record of it. Skipping straight to the paperwork is a common failure point. Never let the second stage happen without the first, and don\u2019t hand the discussion to reception or to anyone who is not treating the client.<\/p>\n
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- Ask the client to explain in their own words what the treatment involves and its main risks, then note their answer, word for word where possible.<\/li>\n
- Ask for consent again whenever the treatment plan, product or dose changes meaningfully from what you discussed.<\/li>\n
- For minors and for clients whose capacity to consent may be in doubt, follow your national rules, which differ between countries, and document that assessment separately.<\/li>\n
- Write notes at the time, not from memory later that day.<\/li>\n
- Don\u2019t ask clients to sign the form in the waiting room before any conversation has taken place.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Retention matters as much as content. There is no single EU retention period for treatment records: national rules set it, and the periods vary. The GDPR adds an outer limit in Article 5(1)(e): personal data must not be kept in a form that identifies the client for longer than the purpose requires. Agree a retention period for each type of record with your adviser, including records of minors, and apply it consistently.<\/p>\n
Digital consent, e-signatures and audit trails<\/h2>\n
In the EU, the eIDAS Regulation (910\/2014) says that an electronic signature cannot be denied legal effect or refused as evidence in court solely because it is electronic or is not a qualified electronic signature. Only a qualified electronic signature automatically has the same legal effect as a handwritten one. Whether a simpler electronic signature is enough for a treatment consent is left to national law and to how well you can prove who signed what, and when.<\/p>\n
That is why the record around the signature matters. A screenshot of a signature is weak evidence; a record kept by the system is stronger. At minimum, keep:<\/p>\n
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- the date and time of signing;<\/li>\n
- who took the consent;<\/li>\n
- the exact text and version of the form the client saw;<\/li>\n
- the completed form itself, stored with the client\u2019s record, and ideally the device or IP address if your form tool records it.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
On the data-protection side, Article 32 of the GDPR requires security appropriate to the risk and names encryption as one of the possible measures. In practice: keep image consent separate from marketing consent, store records securely, and limit access by role so that reception can\u2019t open clinical notes it has no reason to see.<\/p>\n
Digital records pay off fastest in clinics with several branches, where fetching a paper form from another site during a complaint is slow and unreliable.<\/p>\n
Turning a template into your clinic\u2019s actual process<\/h2>\n
A downloaded template is a starting point, not a finished system. Adapt it with these steps:<\/p>\n
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- Create one form per treatment type, with fields for the product, batch and dose that apply to that procedure.<\/li>\n
- Give each form a version ID that includes a date, such as \u201cFillerConsent_v20260301\u201d, so every signed record can be traced to the exact wording the client saw.<\/li>\n
- Decide who may take consent, and train them to note what the client understood, not just to tick a box.<\/li>\n
- Define an escalation path for when a client raises a concern mid-discussion, so everyone knows when to pause and involve a senior practitioner.<\/li>\n
- Map the full client journey: booking, pre-visit information, the consultation, signed paper or digital consent, then secure storage.<\/li>\n
- Review every form at least once a year, and straight away when national rules or your professional body\u2019s guidance change, and keep a change log showing what changed and why.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
Version control is not box-ticking. If a complaint arrives eighteen months after a treatment, you need to show exactly which risks were listed on the form that client signed. Structured consent also builds trust: clients notice when a practitioner asks about their concerns instead of reading from a script.<\/p>\n
Keeping consent records in Altegio<\/h2>\n
Altegio<\/a> is a booking and business management system for appointment-based businesses: beauty, wellness, clinics, fitness and more. Altegio also follows a Zero-Competition Policy: it isn’t a marketplace, so clients book through links that belong only to your business, they don’t see competitors while booking, and your client base is never resold. The consent forms themselves are yours or come from an integration; Altegio gives you places to keep consent records next to the client\u2019s history and appointments, and permissions that control who sees them<\/a>.<\/p>\n
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- Files in the client card.<\/strong> Upload a signed form, a scan or a PDF to the Files section of the client card, and download or delete it later. Supported formats include PDF, Word, Excel, JPG, PNG and TXT, up to 12 MB per file (client card fields<\/a>). The same card holds the visit history, notes and comments.<\/li>\n
- Custom fields.<\/strong> Add fields to the client card or the appointment window for what you need to see at a glance, for example \u201cPhoto consent for marketing\u201d as a list of values, \u201cConsent form version\u201d as text, or \u201cProduct and batch\u201d on the appointment. Fields can be text, number, list of values, date, or date and time. You create them at Chain level under Settings > Custom Fields, or for a single Location in the online booking settings, and you can show a field in the online booking widget and make it mandatory (custom fields<\/a>).<\/li>\n
- Access rights.<\/strong> For each team member, under Team > Team members list > Access, you decide who can view and download, upload or delete client files; who can view or edit custom fields, notes and comments; whether phone numbers and email addresses are visible; whether the client list can be exported to Excel; and whether a team member sees all clients or only those who visited them (All Clients access rights<\/a>).<\/li>\n
- Digital forms through FastSign.<\/strong> FastSign (QR Forms), an integration by Mapty.ai in the Integrations Hub, lets you build branded intake, consent and health questionnaire forms and share them by link or QR code. The client fills in the form on their phone, the answers are written to the client card or the appointment in Altegio, and a PDF of the completed form is generated. The link can also be sent automatically, for example via WhatsApp, when a new client or appointment is created, and profile questions are skipped on repeat visits. FastSign needs its own subscription (FastSign (QR Forms) integration<\/a>).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Two limits to keep in mind. The checkbox in the Altegio booking widget is a personal-data consent, not a treatment consent, and the widget has no separate marketing-consent checkbox. And if your national law requires a particular type of electronic signature for treatment consent, check what your form tool provides before you rely on it.<\/p>\n
For a ready-made structure of what to record, see the client card template guide<\/a>, and for an overview of Altegio for clinics, see Altegio for aesthetic medicine<\/a>. The price depends on the number of team members and the billing period (pricing<\/a>), and you can test the client card, custom fields and access rights during a 7-day free trial<\/a>.<\/p>\n
FAQ<\/h2>\n
Is a signed consent form legally sufficient on its own?<\/h3>\n
No. A signature shows that a document was signed, not that the client was properly informed. Notes written during a real conversation with the practitioner, together with the exact version of the form, are what show that consent was valid.<\/p>\n
What does informed consent mean for aesthetic treatments in Europe?<\/h3>\n
As a general principle, the client must receive appropriate information about the purpose, nature, consequences and risks of the treatment before agreeing freely, and may withdraw consent at any time (Article 5 of the Council of Europe\u2019s Oviedo Convention). How much detail is needed, who may give the information and which treatments count as medical are set by national law and differ between countries.<\/p>\n
How long should aesthetic clinics keep consent records?<\/h3>\n
As long as your national rules require. There is no single EU period: retention for treatment records is set nationally, while the GDPR requires that personal data are not kept longer than necessary. Set a period for each type of record with your adviser, and delete or anonymise records when it ends.<\/p>\n
Are electronic signatures valid for aesthetic consent forms?<\/h3>\n
Under the eIDAS Regulation, an electronic signature cannot be refused legal effect just because it is electronic, and a qualified electronic signature has the same effect as a handwritten one. Whether a simpler e-signature is enough for treatment consent depends on national law and on the audit trail behind it.<\/p>\n
Does Altegio store consent forms and treatment records?<\/h3>\n
You can attach signed forms to the client card as files, record consent status and treatment details in custom fields on the client card or the appointment, and restrict access with team member permissions. For digital forms sent by link or QR code, the FastSign (QR Forms) integration writes the answers back to the client card or appointment and generates a PDF of the completed form.<\/p>\n
Read next<\/h2>\n
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- Client card \u2013 cosmetology, lashes, nails: what to record and a template to download<\/a><\/li>\n
- A salon booking system: how to choose<\/a><\/li>\n
- \u201cYour own system in three days, for next to nothing\u201d: what you\u2019re really buying from a vibe coder<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
This article is general information, not legal or medical advice. Rules on consent, aesthetic treatments and health records differ between European countries, so check your national law and your professional body\u2019s guidance.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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