By Salma Khalik, Health Correspondent

FROM November, clinics can only offer liposuction if their doctors get accreditation from a new committee and satisfy other rules covering training, among other things.

The Health Ministry's decision, announced yesterday, ends a long-running debate over one of Singapore's most popular vanity procedures.

In March, plastic surgeons called for restrictions on who could perform the surgery, saying it was too tricky for GPs and specialists in other fields. The surgery has led to deaths in other countries, though none here.

GPs said plastic surgeons were trying to corner the market on liposuction, which is part of the mushrooming $200 million a year aesthetic industry here.

Doctors estimate that thousands of liposuctions are done here a year.

The regulations that come into effect on Nov 1 include these:

All doctors who offer the procedure will have to get the okay from a newly-formed accreditation committee.

Doctors need at least one year of surgical training, following their housemanship, plus training in the procedure.

Doctors doing treatments in a clinic must have nurses or medical staff to monitor sedated patients.

Clinic doctors can only remove up to one litre of fat per session. Anything more must be done at a hospital or a surgery centre.

Singaporean patients must also be given a seven day cooling-off period to reconsider the surgery, with no pressure to take it up.

Only patients whose body mass index (BMI) is 28 or less can have liposuction done at a clinic, otherwise there is a higher risk of complication. Someone who is 1.6 metres tall and weighs 72 kg would be at the borderline.

Records of all cases have to be kept and complications or complaints reported.
While liposuction was once done exclusively by plastic surgeons, GPs began edging in as methods improved.

Right now, about 1 per cent of general practitioners perform minimally-invasive liposuction, according to a recent survey.

Dr Lim Ah Leng, an obstetrician and gynaecologist who has done the procedure many times, said he had no objections to the rules. But he was upset at the composition of the newly-formed committee that will accredit doctors who want to perform liposuction.

The panel will include three plastic surgeons, a dermatologist and a general practitioner.

'It is a well known fact that plastic surgeons everywhere are zealously protective of what they falsely perceive to be their turf,' said Dr Lim. 'It will be hard to believe that their decision will not be tainted by their inherent bias.'

The Health Ministry says, though, that the rules aim to 'protect patients and safeguard the public's interest by ensuring that liposuction is carried out safely'.

Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan also warned yesterday that even with the rules in place, the decision to have the surgery should not be taken lightly.

'Liposuction is an operation, and has risks,' he said. Invoking a Hokkien saying, he said patients should not be 'willing to die for the sake of looking beautiful'.