[Column] Plastic Surgery Shadow Doctors, Proxy Surgery, and Operating Room CCTV - A Specialist Speaks Directly

Hello. I’m Dr. Jo Hyun-woo, director of 입체성형외과.

For several years now, I’ve been watching the problems of shadow doctors and paid doctors continue to grow in plastic surgery, and as a plastic surgeon with 18 years of experience, I feel deeply disheartened.

I believe the seriousness of this situation is clear, and I think many people considering plastic surgery are greatly worried about this issue.

Today, I’d like to talk about shadow doctors in plastic surgery and proxy surgery.

First, a shadow doctor refers to a doctor who performs a “proxy surgery.”

This refers to an illegal medical practice in which the doctor who consulted with the patient before surgery does not actually perform the operation, and after administering a sedative anesthetic and the patient falls asleep, the surgeon is switched. Patients believe the famous head doctor performed the surgery, but in reality, an unfamiliar doctor with insufficient experience and skill ends up performing it.

I cannot specifically name a particular hospital or case here, but the existence of shadow doctors is already an openly known fact among specialists. So what are the reasons shadow doctors and paid doctors have become widespread?

When hospitals with large capital invest heavily in broadcasting or other marketing, they attract many customers and the hospital actually expands. In such cases, from the doctor’s perspective, it becomes easy to focus more on management than surgery, and the hospital begins to operate like a factory.

Through various broadcasts and advertisements, a so-called “famous doctor” is created, and patients come seeking that one famous doctor.

And it is impossible for one person to perform that many surgeries in a single day.

Therefore, the head doctor spends the whole day focusing on consultations, performs only a few surgeries, leaves before surgery, or has proxy surgeries carried out on the patients who came specifically to see them, which is how shadow doctors emerge.

Reports of accidents during surgery due to excessive use of sedative anesthetics are also not uncommon, and regardless of the case, deeply putting patients to sleep is also connected to the shadow doctor problem.

To deceive patients, shadow doctors administer excessive doses of sedative anesthetics, and in order to distribute large quantities of these sedatives, doctors lend out their licenses and open medical institutions using borrowed licenses, creating a vicious cycle.

It is truly a devastating situation. Because of such unethical medical staff, I know that even overseas patients have become aware of the existence of shadow doctors, and many people are worried.

Since 입체성형외과 is operated by me alone as a one-doctor practice, there can be no shadow doctor.

However, for the peace of mind of patients, ever since opening, we have installed CCTV everywhere in the clinic with no blind spots.

First is the CCTV at the hospital entrance. You can see who comes in and who goes out.

When you open the door and come in, there are

CCTV cameras at the entrances to the waiting area, consultation room, examination room, and treatment room.

Then let’s go down to the operating room.

There is also CCTV at the entrance to the staircase going down.

On the lower floor, there are operating rooms, treatment rooms, and inpatient rooms.

When you open the door, there is a CCTV camera at the end of the hallway. Let’s go into the most important operating room.

The treatment room and

operating room are also equipped with CCTV. You can see it very clearly.

Seeing it this way, you’ll realize there’s really a lot you can know.

From the entrance all the way to the back of the hospital, CCTV is fully installed, so you can check in real time who is coming and going.

Finally, since patients have no way of knowing a hospital’s system from the outside, in order to prevent the shadow doctor problem in advance, you must carefully check everything before surgery. I will attach a notice posted by the Korean Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons.

Please read the measures for preventing damage from shadow doctors carefully.

The fact that such a notice has been issued shows just how serious the shadow doctor problem really is.

Please do not be deceived by false or exaggerated advertising, and I hope you will make a wise and careful check before surgery.

Thank you.