Ghost doctors Concern

Cosmetic surgery adverts in South Korea attract locals and overseas customers. Many are from reputable local surgeons and clinics. But local specialists are worried that the money that can be earned is attracting unqualified surgeons and ghost doctors.

Cosmetic surgery adverts in South Korea attract locals and overseas customers. Many are from reputable local surgeons and clinics. But local specialists are worried that the money that can be earned is attracting unqualified surgeons and ghost doctors.

In South Korea, where physical perfection is seen as a way to improve the quality of life, including job and marriage prospects, cosmetic surgery procedures are commonplace. Many local women, and from other Asian countries, want to look like their favourite film or pop star.

The boom in South Korea’s $5 billion cosmetic surgery industry – is facing a backlash, with formal complaints about botched procedures and dodgy doctors doubling in 2013 from a year earlier. Some surgeons say safety fears could stifle the country’s nascent but fast-growing market for medical tourism, especially from China. Complaints range from unqualified doctors to overly aggressive marketing to ghost doctors, who stand in for more qualified doctors and perform surgeries on unwitting, anaesthetized patients.

Cha Sang-myun of the Korean Association of Plastic Surgeons, which represents 1,500 cosmetic surgeons, is so worried about their reputation that he wants tighter supervision and stricter advertising rules, “ We have got to clean ourselves up. Patients from China are coming in the name of cosmetic surgery tourism but if things go on like this, I don’t think they will come in the next few years.”

In a notorious case in 2013, a high school student ended up in a coma after surgery to fix her nose and get a double-eyelid, a procedure that makes the eyes look bigger. The professional body investigated and found that the hospital that performed the surgery hired ghost doctors, so referred the case to prosecutors. It is still under investigation by prosecutors but nobody has been indicted.

The real professionals blame lax regulation, excessive advertising and society’s obsession with appearance for making South Korea home to more than 4,000 cosmetic surgery clinics – an increasing number of which use surgeons who are not qualified to undertake the procedures.

Cha Sang-myun points out that the number of visiting Chinese patients tripled between 2011 and 2013, and unscrupulous surgeons know that if they cause a patient a problem, there is nothing that the Chinese can do about it; “Advertising too much has made people think surgeries are a commodity. People now think cosmetic surgery is like buying stuff somewhere. But it is surgery that can risk your life.”