Plastic Surgery Ghost Doctors, Proxy Surgery, Operating Room CCTV

Hello, I am Director Jo Hyun-woo of 입체성형외과.

Recently, a television broadcast discussed a patient who died after undergoing plastic surgery.

The topic of proxy surgery and ghost doctors became an issue.

I think the seriousness of the situation is clearly significant, and I believe many people considering plastic surgery are deeply worried about this.

Today, I would like to talk about ghost doctors and proxy surgery in plastic surgery.

First, the term shadow doctor literally means a “shadow doctor,” referring to a doctor who performs proxy surgery.

In other words, it refers to an illegal medical practice in which the doctor who handled the consultation and treatment does not actually perform the surgery, and another doctor takes over as the operating surgeon while the patient is under anesthesia and asleep.

Patients believe the chief director performed the surgery, but in reality, an unfamiliar doctor with insufficient experience and skill performs it.

In the early 2010s, the problem of proxy surgery came to the forefront, and at present, proxy surgery has decreased significantly.

In fact, I think proxy surgery arose from the apprenticeship-style training process in doctors’ education.

While training at medical school, doctors learn by gradually taking over simple suturing or parts of the surgical process for patients undergoing surgery under the guidance of professors.

It is actually impossible to perform surgery without learning, so they learn through this process under the guidance of a mentor.

But the problem is not this; the real problem is when another doctor performs the surgery entirely.

So, what are the reasons shadow doctors become widespread?

When a hospital with substantial capital invests in broadcasting or other marketing efforts, many customers are attracted and the hospital actually expands. In such cases, from the doctor’s perspective, it becomes easy to become more focused on management than surgery, and the hospital also begins to operate like a factory.

Through various broadcasts and advertisements, a star doctor is created, and patients come looking for that one star doctor.

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

Therefore, the chief director spends the entire day focusing on consultations and performs only a few surgeries, or leaves before surgery, or carries out proxy surgery on the patients who came to see them, which leads to the emergence of ghost doctors.

Medical accidents that can even lead to death may occur due to proxy surgery, and in fact, there seem to be quite a few people suffering from side effects caused by proxy surgery.

It is truly unfortunate. I understand well that many people have come to know about the existence of shadow doctors and are worried because of a few unethical doctors like this.

Such situations must never happen, and to prevent proxy surgery, the mandatory installation of operating room CCTV came into being.

Our clinic, 입체성형외과, is operated solely by me as a one-person chief director practice, so there can be no shadow doctor.

We do not perform proxy surgery at all, and for the reassurance of those who are worried, we have installed CCTV throughout the clinic with no blind spots to provide peace of mind.

In addition, I personally take responsibility for every step, from incision to suturing.

I directly diagnose, consult, and perform the surgery, so I can say that patients who visit us can trust us as a highly reliable plastic surgery clinic.

First, this is the CCTV at the main entrance of the hospital. You can tell who comes in and who goes out.

If you open the door and come inside, there are

CCTVs at the entrances to the waiting room, consultation room, examination room, and treatment room.

Then let’s go downstairs.

There is also a CCTV at the entrance to the stairs going down.

Downstairs there are operating rooms, treatment rooms, and inpatient rooms, and there is a CCTV at the end of the hallway.

The treatment room and

operating room are also equipped with CCTV.

Since our clinic has only one operating room, proxy surgery and simultaneous surgeries are absolutely impossible.

With CCTVs installed everywhere from the entrance to the far end of the clinic, we can monitor in real time who is coming and going.

From the patient’s perspective, there is no way to know how a hospital’s system actually works, so to prevent problems involving ghost doctors and proxy surgery in advance, you must carefully check everything before surgery.

According to the amended Medical Services Act, if a patient requests it, a medical institution must record the surgery scene, retain the video for at least 30 days, and, in accordance with the user-pays principle, may charge the requester a fee to review the recording information.

I will also attach the official notice posted by the Korean Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons.

Please read carefully the measures to prevent 피해 from ghost surgery.

I hope you will not be fooled by false and exaggerated advertising, and that you will make a wise decision before surgery.

Thank you.