Confidence needed in cosmetic surgeons
AS AUSTRALIA reels from the shocking cases of patient harm at the hands of cosmetic cowboys uncovered over the past 18 months, an important question remains. How could this have been allowed to occur for so long? For years, some practitioners have been promoting themselves as ‘cosmetic surgeons’ when, in fact, they have never received a formal surgical education.
Cosmetic surgery patients are being misled by the title ‘surgeon’, believing they are being operated on by a surgical specialist and unknowingly putting themselves at serious risk of harm. Tragically, hundreds of patients across Australia have been left disfigured, in pain and psychologically damaged by these cosmetic cowboys. Australian patients finally received some reassurance recently following moves by the nation’s health ministers to reform the sector, including by banning the use of the title ‘surgeon’ by medical practitioners who are not registered surgical specialists.
However, we shouldn’t ignore the fact that the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) has shown ongoing and frustrating failure in its duty to patients over several years.
Almost from day one, AHPRA has been mired in controversy with Senate inquiries in 2011, 2017 and
2021 and a separate inquiry in 2014 exposing the regulator’s failings in the management of complaints, its lack of transparency and the lengthy delays in investigating medical practitioners.
Last year, a joint Four Corners investigation exposed the shocking practices of social media celebrity and ‘cosmetic surgeon’ Daniel
Lanzer. As a result of the ensuing public outcry, AHPRA finally took action against Dr Lanzer, but failed to address the appalling fact he had been allowed to perpetrate years of patient harm through bad practice.
True to form, and without even a hint of shame, AHPRA is now seeking to undermine the standards the nation’s Health Ministers are seeking to uphold.
Despite Health Ministers agreeing to restrict the use of the title
‘surgeon’, AHPRA is proposing to endorse medical practitioners who do not have surgical training to allow them to continue performing cosmetic surgery under a new manufactured title. Under this arrangement, medical practitioners will be permitted to advertise themselves as having an ‘endorsement’ for cosmetic surgery. This idea originated from the cosmetic surgeons themselves.
It comes from organisations like the Australasian College of Cosmetic Surgery and Medicine, the same body that listed Daniel Lanzer and other disgraced practitioners amongst its fellows and then quietly removed them from its online directory because of media exposure.
There needs to be an immediate review of AHPRA, including the Medical Board of Australia, if the public is to have any confidence in its ability to safeguard patients.
They must be held accountable.