Seoul cracks down on Plastic surgery clinics serving Chinese tourists
Bid to curb boom in unregistered clinics, illegal brokers as Chinese women flock to country
PUBLISHED : Saturday, 14 February, 2015, 12:32am
UPDATED : Saturday, 14 February, 2015, 1:22am
Agence France-Presse
Seoul cracks down on Plastic surgery clinics serving Chinese tourists
South Korea yesterday announced a crackdown on the medical tourism industry in a bid to curb illegal brokers and unregistered medical clinics that have flourished as mainland Chinese women flock there for plastic surgery.
The Health Ministry unveiled a raft of measures drafted in response to a growing number of complaints over botched jobs and exorbitant billing, many of them filed by Chinese who travel specifically to South Korea for cosmetic procedures.
A 50-year-old mainland woman was left in a coma late last month after undergoing a procedure at a plastic surgery clinic in the upmarket Seoul district of Gangnam.
"Market-disturbing activities involving illegal brokers and inflated fees, as well as disputes over malpractice, are sparking complaints from foreign patients," the ministry said in a statement.
"This package of measures is aimed at sustaining international trust in the country's plastic surgery market."
The number of foreigners travelling to South Korea for medical treatment has been increasing by an average of 37 per cent a year since 2009 and totalled more than 210,000 in 2013.
The president of the Hong Kong Medical Association, Dr Louis Shih Tai-cho, said every month or two he received a case of plastic surgery performed outside Hong Kong that had gone wrong.
The mainland was still the top destination for such surgery, but South Korea had become more popular among Hong Kong people in recent years, he said.
"There are group tours for people to go have beauty injections, de-wrinkle treatments, laser treatments and plastic surgery," he said.
Patients visited his clinic when they were dissatisfied with the outcome or got infections, he added, but serious side effects were rare.
South Korea, and particularly Seoul, has an international reputation for plastic surgery, and adverts featuring famous surgeons and giant before-and-after photos are omnipresent - on street billboards, subway trains, bus stops and the backs of bus seats.
China's growing middle class is a vast potential market, and many Korean clinics have Chinese-language websites.
According to the South Korean health ministry, more than 25,400 Chinese came for cosmetic treatment in 2013, an increase of 70 per cent from the previous year, with each one spending an average of US$3,150.
In order to prevent price-gouging and ensure standards are maintained, the new measures unveiled yesterday require any medical facility treating foreign patients - and any brokers they use to attract clients - to register with the ministry.
Failure to do so carries a maximum three-year jail sentence and a hefty fine.
In Hong Kong, Shih said he was worried about beauty companies employing inexperienced doctors to perform plastic surgery. How such companies advertised and promoted the treatments fell outside the scope of Medical Council, which regulated the conduct of doctors, he said. The government should offer legislation to tighten control over beauty surgeries, Shih said.
Additional reporting by Amy Nip and Xinhua
