Dr Daniel Aronov successfully applies for supervision conditions to be scaled back

The TikTok star at the centre of a medical review will be allowed to contribute while the health system is under strain.

A banned surgeon who filmed himself allegedly conducting inappropriate practises has successfully had his medical supervision scaled back as an investigation into his conduct continues.

Social media star and banned surgeon Dr Daniel Aronov this week appeared in the Victorian Civil and Tribunal (VCAT) for a stay hearing, during which he applied for the Medical Board of Australia to scale back some of the conditions on his medical registration pending the completion of a review.

The conditions, imposed on November 26, 2021, banned Dr Aronov from performing cosmetic procedures and surgeries but allowed him to practise as a general practitioner (GP) with direct supervision during each patient consultation.

But this week he sought for the supervision to be scaled back, as well as permission to work as a surgeon’s assistant.

He did not seek to amend the third condition — requiring him to remove posts about his cosmetic medical and surgical procedures from social media, and not to publish any further material.

Dr Aronov started full-time work as an associate surgeon at the Dr Lanzer Clinics in 2018, where he started posting the medical procedures he performed to social media.

His posts grew in popularity and at the time the board began investigating him he had more than 13 million TikTok followers and more than 500,000 Instagram followers.

But an investigation into his conduct was launched after alleged inappropriate practises at the clinics were exposed in a Four Corners segment, aired in October 2021.

Following this publicity and associated media reports, the board received 23 complaints, containing “very serious allegations”, about Dr Aronov.

Tik Tok famous cosmetic surgeon Daniel Aronov fronted VCAT again this week.

The allegations range from Dr Aronov filming patients during procedures and uploading them to social media without consent to procedures being performed with insufficient pain relief, poor hygiene and infection control practices, poor post-operative care leading to complications and discouraging patients from seeing other practitioners if complications arose, including calling an ambulance.

While two of these complaints have resolved, 21 are outstanding.

More than 6700 pages of documents pertaining to these complaints were presented to the tribunal on Wednesday, which heard an investigation had commenced and may lead to disciplinary proceedings.

Dr Aronov, who the tribunal heard had not worked since the conditions were imposed, provided the tribunal with 50 professional and personal references as he asked for the supervision to be scaled back.

The tribunal considered that he had sought work at 10 GPs but all said the supervision condition was not viable – effectively rendering him unemployable as a GP.

The father-of-four submitted he was paying his mortgage repayments and living expenses with his savings but it was only a “matter of months’” before he would be forced to sell his home.

VCAT Senior Member, Jonathan Smithers, chose not to lift the ban on surgery or to allow him to work as a surgical assistant but did downgrade his supervision from the highest to the second highest level.

He said this allowed him to contribute while the health system was under strain but also protected the public in light of concerns about patient safety, noting Dr Aronov’s desire for “remote supervision… would be inadequate”.