SINGAPORE - A businessman who owns two aesthetic clinic and beauty companies has offered to help customers of the beleaguered Novu Aesthetics clinic chain.
Dr Kelvin Chua, who founded SL Aesthetic and SkinLab The Medical Spa chain, said he has no connection with Novu and its owners but he is allowing its patients to redeem the remaining values in their prepaid treatment packages at his clinics.
Patients told The Straits Times that they have mixed reactions to Dr Chua's offer.
Retiree Marion Ng, 54, appreciates the gesture but said it would be difficult for patients to produce any official receipt showing their credit balances with Novu.
"I am in a group chat with over 130 patients and all of us do not have any receipt. We were not given any after our treatments," she added.
Another patient who declined to be named questioned Dr Chua's intentions in making the offer.
The 50-year-old admin manager said: "I appreciate the kind offer, but I believe the clinics would also try to get us to sign up for their packages after giving us one or two free treatments."
Ms Ng said she has come across other aesthetic clinics that are also willing to offer a discount to Novu's patients if they buy their packages.
Dr Chua told a Zoom meeting with the media on Wednesday (March 24) that he sincerely wants to help Novu's patients who have been left "high and dry in the sudden closure of Novu Aesthetics".
"When this saga happened, I don't think it is good for the industry and our image. It will affect a lot of aesthetic clinics... Consumers will lose their confidence.
"I think it is very sad. This is not the first time a clinic or spa chain closed down."
Novu Aesthetics shut all its outlets on March 15, with the management claiming that the move was to protect its staff from customers who turned abusive after failing to get their treatments.
The medical aesthetic chain of clinics run under a subsidiary of the troubled Novena Global Healthcare, which was co-founded by Singaporean cousins Nelson and Terence Loh, said it was facing a lack of funds which had seen doctors taken off its roster and some staff left unpaid.
Novu declined to comment or say how many patients were affected by the closure.
The Consumers Association of Singapore (Case) has received at least 86 complaints against Novu Aesthetics and other entities under the Novu brand since Feb 1.
Case president Lim Biow Chuan said he was not aware of the offers by SL Aesthetics and SkinLab.
"Should affected consumers be keen on this or any other offer, they are advised to carefully go through and be fully agreeable to the terms and conditions of such offers. Consumers should then assess if the offer is suitable for them before they commit, as they would then be entering into a separate agreement with the new entity.
"Notwithstanding any offer made by a third party, consumers are not precluded from seeking redress against Novu Aesthetics and other entities under the Novu brand," he added.
