Cosmetic surgery: Geelong doctors, patients speak out on botched procedures

One of Geelong’s leading surgeons regularly called on to correct the work of dodgy cosmetic cowboys has revealed the scary scope of the problem.

Dodgy doctors performing cosmetic procedures have been leaving local patients with lasting physical and emotional scars.

Geelong specialist plastic surgeon Peter Callan said he had reported practitioners who he felt had been acting outside their scope of practice and had harmed patients to the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA).

“AHPRA has dismissed me every time, and these people have gone on mutilating people,” Dr Callan said.

Have you been a victim of botched cosmetic surgery? Contact [e-mail] and tell us your story

Dr Callan said his practice had seen people seeking revision surgery who had been overseas and did not know the qualifications of the people treating them, as well as patients who had seen doctors without specialty training in Australia.

“A lot of the problems are uncorrectable,” Dr Callan said.

“You might be able to improve them, but to correct them back to where they should be can be impossible.”

Top Geelong plastic surgeon Peter Callan. Picture: Alison Wynd

A spokeswoman for AHPRA and the Medical Board of Australia said it was not illegal to call yourself a cosmetic surgeon even if you were not a plastic surgeon because the title surgeon was not restricted to a particular group of doctors with a specific qualification.

“However, Australia’s health ministers decided (recently) to change the National Law so in future only doctors with specific qualifications will be able to call themselves a surgeon,” she said.

“We had asked for this change.

“It has not been possible to take regulatory action against a doctor for breaking rules that don’t exist.”

“We … announced a series of cosmetic surgery reforms aimed at improving practice, lifting standards and promoting informed consumer choice.

“Australia’s health ministers are also taking action.

“Together, AHPRA and the Medical Board of Australia are working hard to change the system and the rules, so consumers who choose cosmetic surgery can access safe care.”

A Geelong region woman told the Addy she was left scarred after she went to a cosmetic surgeon in Melbourne in 2014 for a mini-facelift.

The victim, who did not wish to be named, said she attended what was described as a day procedure cosmetic surgery hospital but was actually just a large room with areas cordoned off by material.

She said she was left with a huge, “obtrusive” scar in front of one of her ears.

She lost trust in the doctor, who has since become notorious, after the procedure which she said cost about $17,000.

The doctor ignored the problem when she questioned it and claimed she was healing beautifully, the victim said.

“It was something I had to learn to live with and accept,” she said.

“Many consumers were not aware that intensive postgraduate specialist training was a formal requirement for would-be plastic surgeons, and that certain practitioners lacked these specialist skills.”

She was relieved after rectification surgery by Dr Callan this year, which fixed the scar.

The final report from the Independent review of the regulation of medical practitioners who perform cosmetic surgery, commissioned by AHPRA and the Medical Board of Australia in November, was recently released.

The review found that when it came to cosmetic surgery, universal minimum standards for education, training and qualifications were non-existent in Australia.

This meant it was possible for any medical practitioner to offer and perform invasive cosmetic surgical procedures without having undertaken appropriate training or having gained sufficient supervised experience.

“It’s very difficult for people to determine who the qualified people are,” Dr Callan said.

“If somebody calls themselves a surgeon, most people would expect that they’re a trained surgeon.

“Unfortunately, that’s not always the case.”

AHPRA and the board accepted all 16 recommendations from the review’s final report.

Recommendations included setting minimum standards about the education, training and qualifications expected of medical practitioners who perform cosmetic surgery.

Soon after its release, Health Minister Mark Butler earlier this month announced state counterparts had agreed to reforms including preventing medical practitioners who were not qualified describing themselves as cosmetic “surgeons”.

Health Minister Mark Butler. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

He said work would commence immediately.

He said the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care had been tasked with developing specific safety and quality standards for where and how cosmetic surgery could be performed.

Dr Callan, a former president of the Australian Society of Plastic Surgeons, said patients who had fallen victim to bad cosmetic work by doctors lacking specialist training were devastated they were duped and felt embarrassed.

“They feel like they didn’t do their research properly, but they also feel let down by the regulators, that these people are allowed to operate,” he said.

“A lot of these patients have to live with this forever.

“It’s a silent toll … but it’s a devastating toll to the people who have had problems.”

Dr Callan specialises mainly in face surgery so did not see a high volume of people requiring corrective surgery, but saw more when he also did body work.

He said he believed the doctors performing cosmetic work without specialised training were concentrated in capital cities.

He said people who were doing advanced surgery needed advanced surgery training.

Dr Callan said the likelihood of complications was much lower among doctors performing within their scope of practice with specialised training in an accredited facility.

“The people who don’t have advanced surgery training should not be in the space, they should not be permitted to do it,” he said.

Dr Callan said it was positive the issue was receiving more public attention.

But he said it was a “pity” it had taken this long and said AHPRA had handled the problem “very badly”.

Maurice Blackburn senior associate Gabrielle Feery, who works in medical negligence, said its Geelong office had received a significant number of inquiries from patients who had poor outcomes from cosmetic surgery.

She said limits on the types of injuries patients could claim compensation for made these difficult to seek recourse for.

Doctors should be held accountable, she said.

Originally published as Cosmetic surgery: Geelong doctors, patients speak out on botched procedures