Australian Society of Plastic Surgeons

4 5 BUSINESS VIEW OCEANIA VOLUME 4, ISSUE 5 BUSINESS VIEW OCEANIA VOLUME 4, ISSUE 5 way to define plastic surgery. We have broad fields of practice, and most practitioners narrow down their practice to a more defined scope as a result. Our members have to meet a set of very stringent criteria to be connected with us, which includes holding a specialist qualification from RACS, and being Fellows of the College. Our members must also have undertaken a minimum of 12 years’ medical and surgical education. Those 12 years include a minimum of five years of postgraduate training. So, our relationship with the RACS is integral to our operations as an organisation.” Mr. Kennedy shares an outline of ASPS’s core values and philosophies. “One of the things that we always say in medicine in general is ‘First Do No Harm’. And what we would say is the most important thing in the doctor-patient relationship is to provide professional advice and assistance that doesn’t have a commercial edge to it. An appropriate professional approach should think first about what is best for the patient and shouldn’t cloud any decision with commercial factors. That is something that our members are very proud to uphold.” In addition to promoting professionalism, ASPS promotes a high standard of practice for all plastic surgeons. The association provides mentoring and peer review programs that centre around standards of practice, as well as comprehensive professional development programs to further deepen their speciality understanding. Mr. Kennedy continues, “We also advocate for patients. It’s very important to us that the availability of plastic surgery for reconstruction in public hospitals is protected, and that private hospitals may offer plastic surgery to patients without prejudice. We have advocated very strongly for issues that affect patients Australia-wide. For example, a few years ago the government wanted quite rightly to protect Medicare against cosmetic misuse, but they took a blunt axe to it, so to speak. And they were trying to cut out things that are very functional, like breast reduction. We advocated very strongly and had great success in preserving patients’ ability to have a breast reduction, which is a functional, pain-relieving operation, not a cosmetic one.” A current advocacy priority for ASPS, Mr. Kennedy says, is the titling of surgeons in Australia. “We believe that the distinction between doctors who are and aren’t specialist surgeons should be transparent and obvious to the public. Patients expect that the word ‘surgeon’, refers to a specialist who has been trained to an advanced level with Australian Medical Council (AMC) approval of their training. Currently, the term ‘surgeon’ is not a specialist reserved title. Therefore, a doctor can legally represent themselves as a specialist surgeon without any specialist training. This lack of transparency adds to prejudice against the plastic surgery industry and contributes to the unfettered practice of ‘cosmetic surgery cowboys’; healthcare providers who represent themselves as cosmetic surgeons without any specialist training. “The term ‘plastic surgeon’ is reserved, but ‘cosmetic’ is not a recognised specialty title. It has been argued that this is appropriate because there is no specialist training in cosmetic surgery, but that simply is not true. We do train in cosmetic surgery extensively, across the entire scope of cosmetic surgery. We have an extremely detailed and comprehensive training program- it’s just that cosmetic surgery falls inside our specialty, so there hasn’t been a need for the specialty ‘cosmetic surgery’ to be named. This is currently being investigated by the Health Council and will be responded to by the AMC and relevant bodies upon its conclusion. We are not talking here about stopping your specialist general practitioner from operating on you appropriately. We propose that the term ‘surgeon’ be reserved for specialist surgeons who have advanced specialty training recognised by the AMC. We’re saying that somebody without a specialty training in surgery shouldn’t be AUSTRAL I AN SOC I ETY OF PLAST I C SURGEONS (ASPS) President, Dan Kennedy