By Kim Rahn
Prosecutors have indicted Ryu Sang-wook, director of Grand Plastic Surgery in Gangnam, southern Seoul, for allegedly having other surgeons stand in for him in the operating room without his patients’ knowledge.
The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office said Monday that it had charged the 44-year-old with fraud.
Between November 2012 and October 2013, he allegedly told 33 patients that he would perform the surgery but had other doctors do it instead while the patients were unconscious under anesthesia. The doctors who stood in for him included dentists and otolaryngologists, who are usually paid less than the surgeons specializing in plastic surgery.
The “ghost surgery” allegedly saved Ryu 15.2 million won, according to the prosecution. He allegedly did not keep many patients’ medical records during the period.
He is also accused of operating plastic surgery clinics and dental clinics under other doctors’ names in four locations in Seoul and Busan from 2012 to 2013. He also allegedly failed to properly manage and keep records of anesthetics and other drugs.
Grand Plastic Surgery is said to be one of Seoul’s top three plastic surgery clinics, with industry sources estimating the hospital makes at least 50 billion won annually.
Following a series of accidents there including the death of a patient, the hospital has been under suspicion of conducting ghost surgeries. In April 2014, the Korean Association of Plastic Surgeons suspended the memberships of Ryu and other doctors at the clinic and asked the prosecution to investigate the surgeons and the hospital.