GPs To Perform Liposuction – Smart Or Not?

These days talking about liposuction brings conflicting things to mind. There are the benefits of a professional liposuction procedure that are touted in almost the same breath as the death of someone during the operation.

While it is disturbing to come across such snippets for us in the plastic surgery profession, it is perhaps more disturbing when we hear news of giving general practitioners the go ahead to perform a liposuction surgery.

In Singapore, the Health Ministry is set on granting GPs permission to perform liposuction procedures involving removal of less than a litre of fat on patients. These liposuction treatments need to be performed under general anesthesia.

Now cosmetic surgeons who are members of the ASPS are required to undergo more then 6 years of surgical training and have an experience of minimum 3 years in plastic surgery. The Plastic Surgery Institute of California is one of the few facilities to have a team consisting of such qualified doctors.

Quite understandably then, the Singapore Association of Plastic Surgeons (SAPS)- which demands such a lengthy and exhaustive qualification period from cosmetic surgeons- is against this move.

Given the nature of liposuction surgery (major, elective and complex) would you trust a GP who has only one year's experience and training in the procedure?

At our advanced surgical institute we don't think this practice is safe and advise patients to weigh in such a decision before going ahead with it.