Cosmetic surgery rogue operators: Health minister calls for investigation

TWO patients and a nurse are calling out the cosmetic surgery industry as jaw-dropping revelations emerge over just how unqualified some medics plying their risky trade are.

Emma Kelly was offered a second round of surgery to fix her breast implants but said she no longer felt safe with the same surgeon. Picture: David Swift

• Botched surgery occurs when high demand meets high-pressure sales tactics
• Beauty clinic owner’s death exposes dangers
• How safe is cosmetic surgery? Apparently we don’t care
• A death, disfigurements and debilitating illness

MEDICAL school graduates are calling themselves cosmetic “surgeons” after completing half-day training courses in breast enhancements and Botox, prompting calls for a wide ranging ­overhaul of the industry by concerned health professionals and terrified women who believe they have been misled on the operating table.

NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard last night ordered an investigation into rogue operators “flouting regulations” after the revelations.

A special investigation by The Saturday Telegraph also revealed NSW’s ­billion-dollar cosmetic surgery industry has been likened by one former clinic nurse to a “wild, wild west” operation with a bizarre loophole that allows anyone who has graduated with a medical degree and is a registered doctor to call themselves a cosmetic “surgeon” — even if they have not undergone any specialised training.

Image from website of Enhance Clinic. Patient Emma Kelly said her breast enhancement operation was “butchered” at Enhance’s Penrith outlet.

The revelations come amid a boom of easily accessible cosmetic surgeries in suburban streets and shopping centres all over Sydney, luring customers with cheap rates and payment plans.

Today we can reveal:

■ Popular cosmetic surgeons include individuals who have failed their GP exams and their only qualifications are medical school degrees;

■ Botox is being administered by nurses with doctors only supervising via Skype — or not at all;

■ Cosmetic surgeons are continuing to use controversial and cheaper “low-level sedation” to keep patients awake during breast enlargement operations;

■ In some instances, operators are both performing procedures and administering anaesthetic themselves in a bid to further save costs; and

■ One Sydney cosmetic surgeon whose clinic has been told to cease and desist surgery at their Western Sydney facility has launched a bizarre campaign ­“encouraging women” to get breast ­surgery at unlicensed clinics.

Mr Hazzard last night ordered the Ministry of Health to conduct a high-level review of Sydney’s clinics in a bid to catch out facilities “flouting regulations” after The Saturday Telegraph discovered Enhance Clinic at Penrith is still operating even though the facility is not licensed.

NSW Health is now looking at legal action to shut the clinic down after it has ignored cease-and-desist letters. “I’ve directed the Ministry of Health to refer this matter to the HCCC for investigation to determine whether there is enough evidence to prosecute them,” Mr Hazzard said.

“Their qualifications outside a medical degree have been a two-hour workshop.”

He said he was “concerned on behalf on the community” about the level of safety in Sydney’s booming cosmetic surgery industry and had ordered the ministry to do whatever it could to prosecute clinics flouting regulations.

Les Blackstock, the GP who operates Enhance Clinic, said new laws which require any clinic that performs breast augmentations to be licensed did not improve patient safety.

He said he had been a “driving force” in bringing the cost of implants down and he wanted to get the message out it was “safe” to have breast surgery at an unlicensed facility.

“We have been assessed by the NSW Medical Council and passed accreditation of safety standards,” he said.

Dr Les Blackstock said he had been a “driving force” in bringing implant costs down.

Dr Blackstock said he used “tumescent anaesthetic method” rather than “general anaesthetic”, which meant he had not been previously asked to get the clinic licensed. He also claimed his surgeries were not augmentations, because he was giving women “new breasts”, not making them bigger.

Nurse Nicole Montgomery, who worked at one clinic for years, compared the industry to a “wild wild west” where doctors who did not have proper surgical training were performing ­complex procedures.

The Australasian Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (ASAPS) board president Dr Mark Magnusson told The Saturday Telegraph the recent death of Jean Huang, 33, during a breast procedure highlighted the need for tougher regulation over who could call themselves a cosmetic surgeon.

“I’ve seen resumes from cosmetic surgeons and their qualifications outside a medical degree have been a two-hour workshop,” he said.

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Dr Magnusson said there had been a reluctance to act because cosmetic surgery didn’t come under Medicare.

“The regulations are there but they’re failing to be adhered to, and there is a lack of enforcements,” he said. “I think because the surgeries are private there has been a reluctance to act, but people’s safety is being put at risk.”

President of the Australian Society of Anaesthetists Professor David Scott said surgeons performing both sedation and the surgery themselves were “playing a game of life and death”.

“The anaesthesia is the most dangerous part of the surgery, it’s not the place to be cutting corners. If something goes wrong you only have a matter of minutes to respond,” he said. Some “surgeons” were taking advantage of laws that allow GPs and nurses to administer to local anaesthetic but were giving “lethal doses”, he said.

CASE 1: THE SHATTERED MUM

WHEN Newcastle mum Jessica Boyson went under the knife she had no idea the man operating on her was actually a GP and not a specially trained surgeon.

Ms Boyson, 31, says she was left in constant pain and with what she describes as fake-looking “tennis ball tits” after she underwent a breast augmentation at the Cosmetic Institute in Parramatta, which is now in liquidation, in 2013.

Jessica Boyson: “One of my nipples dropped out of the pocket.” Picture: Richard Dobson

She said it left her shattered and she had only regained her confidence after having another operation to fix the problem by plastic surgeon Dr Nicholas Moncrieff.

“If I knew what I know now there’s no way I would have seen a cosmetic surgeon,” Ms Boyson, a nurse herself, said. “I assumed because he was calling himself a cosmetic surgeon he had specialised in surgical training.

“My message to other women would be to go to a plastic surgeon. I got what I paid for and my breasts looked cheap and ugly.”

Ms Boyson is now married to anaesthetist Dr Jonathon Rothwell, who was “gobsmacked” when he found out his wife’s sedation had been performed by a nurse.

“Anaesthetics is a delicate art and needs to be performed by someone who is trained in this area for operations,” Dr Rothwell said.

“Some of these surgeons downplay the risk by calling it a procedure, but it is an operation and you need someone who is trained to know what happens when something goes wrong.”

CASE 2: THE ‘DISFIGURED’ NURSE

COOGEE nurse Emma Kelly says she has been left “feeling disfigured” and is facing a $40,000 bill for corrective surgery after a Western Sydney GP “butchered” her breasts.

Ms Kelly, who works in the cosmetic industry, said she has been left scarred and in terrible pain after a breast augmentation from Dr Les Blackstock at the Enhance Clinic in Penrith.

Emma Kelly: “They’re way too big for my frame and look ridiculous.” Picture: David Swift

The procedure took place in a house that has been converted into an office in 2014.

She said she was given a low-level sedation during the procedure.

“I could remember his asking me questions about the size, but you’re really out of it can’t answer,” Ms Kelly said.

And the 33-year-old said she was now forced to take “daily painkillers” as she struggled to recover from the ordeal, saying the implants had proved a nightmare.

“They’re way too big for my frame and look ridiculous,” Ms Kelly said.

“(Fixing them) needs to be a two-part surgery — one to remove the implants and fix the damage, and another to put implants back in.”

Ms Kelly said she was offered corrective work by Dr Blackstock but didn’t feel safe going under the knife again with him.

Dr Blackstock told The Saturday Telegraph he couldn’t comment on the specific case, but had very few complaints and had helped hundreds of happy customers every year.

CASE 3: THE WHISTLEBLOWER

NURSE Nicole Montgomery has lifted the lid on Sydney’s cosmetic industry after spending three years working in one of the city’s most controversial clinics.

Nicole Montgomery, pictured with daughters Lily and Ella Grace, has launched a website to help patients find trusted surgeons. Picture: Richard Dobson

Ms Montgomery worked from 2013-16 at a scandal-ridden clinic currently at the centre of a huge class action suit, but quit after she said she couldn’t take any more of their behaviour.

Ms Montgomery told The Saturday Telegraph the industry was using underqualified people branded as “cosmetic surgeons”.

“I know doctors who have failed their GP exams who call themselves cosmetic surgeons,” she said.

Ms Montgomery has now launched a website, Trusted Surgeons, encouraging people to seek surgery from doctors who have had specialist surgical training.

A spokesman from the clinic said all their doctors held the qualifications required by national and state law.