By Yoon Ja-young
Hospitals and clinics should provide patients or their families with detailed information on surgeons performing operations on them. They can switch to other doctors only when the patients or family members agree. These are part of the government measures to root out ghost surgery.
The fair trade commission (FTC) announced Tuesday that it revised the standard contract for surgery. Currently, only the name of the attending physician is included in the contract between the patient and the hospital. After the revision, however, the names of all physicians participating in the surgery as well as their specialties will be written in the contract. When doctors other than those in the contract are to do the operation instead, the hospital should explain to the patients or family why, such as the attending doctor being called away to an emergency or falling ill themselves. The hospitals should get prior written consent from the patient or family members before surgery.
“The new standard contract will effectively prevent ghost surgery by making clear the surgeon who is responsible,” said Min Hye-young, an official in charge of contract reviews at the FTC.
The measure comes amid increasing concerns over ghost surgeons, especially in plastic surgery clinics. These hospitals attract patients by telling them that a renowned surgeon will do the job. After the patient is put under anesthesia, however, the so-called star plastic surgeon just leaves the operating room, leaving the work to be done by ghost doctors. These ghost doctors are often inexperienced in the field or haven’t specialized in plastic surgery. Unqualified doctors wishing to build up experience in plastic surgery often take the work despite lower pay, while the star surgeons get incentives for only consulting with the patients without actually doing the surgery.
Consumers Korea, a local NGO, reported that ghost surgery is prevalent. It cited the case of a patient surnamed Park, who visited a plastic surgery clinic in Gangnam District, southern Seoul, which harbors numerous plastic surgery clinics. After consulting with the coordinator, she made an appointment to get jaw surgery from Kim, a renowned plastic surgeon who promised the best results. She got the operation five days later, but when she awoke from anesthesia, she had severe pain and couldn’t open her mouth wide. After a few months, she found out that the procedure was done by a ghost surgeon. She still suffers from side effects.
The FTC said that it hopes to better protect patients’ rights by making hospitals provide more detailed information. “By guaranteeing patients’ right to know and choose their doctors, we expect the measure will improve fairness of contracts for medical services,” Min said.