Plastic surgeons have fought and failed to control their turf by excluding other medical practitioners from performing liposuction.

In the US, plastic surgeons went to court to try to stop other doctors from carrying out liposuction. The court threw their case out.

The Health Ministry has made the correct and internationally plausible decision by allowing any trained doctor to perform liposuction under regulated conditions.

To clear the myth, liposuction is more of an art than science. It is not difficult to stick strictly to the rules and achieve safe liposuction. The final result is a combination of experience and artistic skills. Any doctor with surgical background and proper training can achieve the same results as the plastic surgeons, as the American court ruled.

According to the popular website, About.com:

Dr Giorgio Fischer, an Italian gynaecologist, invented the liposuction procedure in 1974.

Dr Illouz, a French plastic surgeon, made the first purely cosmetic use of the procedure four years later.

Dermatologists, Dr Jeffrey Klein and Dr Patrick Lillis, invented the tumescent technique of liposuction in 1985.

The latter technique is practised by almost all practitioners of liposuction, including plastic surgeons. Interestingly, no dermatologist has ever tried to prevent others from performing tumescent liposuction. The plastic surgeon's primary duty is to carry out corrective procedures like cleft lip repair and skin graft for burns.

In the US, cosmetic surgery comes under a separate Board of Cosmetic Surgery.

Because of the very limited number of plastic surgeons (fewer than 30) in Singapore, fees have escalated beyond those in the region. This has driven local and foreign patients to nearby centres, especially Bangkok.

Instead of crying foul, Singapore plastic surgeons can do the country a favour by making their fees more competitive, and help stem the flow of patients overseas.

In the long term, we should consider setting up a school of cosmetic surgery and aesthetic medicine similar to those in the US.

This will allow the plastic surgeons more time to concentrate on their primary duty.

Dr Lim Ah Leng