London, Sept. 19: An Indian doctor who inserted implants so that a porn actor could have the biggest breasts in Britain is to be questioned by his hospital about his work as a plastic surgeon, it was reported today.
Shiva Singh, whose surgery on the actor, Cathy Barry, was seen live on television, is to appear before the committee responsible for ethics at the London Bridge Hospital where he is based.
A recording of the programme, which was broadcast on Channel 5 television, will also be studied by the General Medical Council to see if any rules have been broken.
Singh claims that he has done nothing wrong and that his critics are trying to preserve their monopoly in an increasingly lucrative plastic surgery market estimated at being worth ?300 million a year.
London Bridge Hospital strongly defends Singh?s surgical record, but he will be called before its medical advisory committee. The General Medical Council said it would be ?requesting a copy of the programme and will take any action necessary after studying it?.
Operations carried out by plastic surgeons have been turned into ?entertainment? by Channel 5. Singh?s operation on Barry was said to have taken three times as long as a routine breast augmentation but the porn actor proudly showed off her new 34JJ bust on TV last Saturday.
The operation was branded unethical by Dr Richard Nicholson, editor of the Bulletin of Medical Ethics, who said: ?There are some uses of medical skills that are unethical and I would say this is one of them.?
The National Health Service, for whom Singh once worked, is currently examining whether rules on plastic surgery need to be tightened. Liam Donaldson, the chief medical officer, is understood to be planning to recommend limiting the number of surgeons who can carry out operations.
The advice to the public from the Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) is for operations to be carried out only by surgeons on the specialist register of the medical council. However, at present, any basically qualified surgeon ? and Singh is one ? is permitted to offer the procedures.
However, Singh is not on the specialist register, although he does possess a basic registration as a doctor. He is permitted to carry out plastic surgery only because he began offering the service before April 2002.
Since then, all doctors who set up as plastic surgeons have had to be on the specialist register. Since 1997, doctors have also been required to be registered specialists before they take up a permanent consultant?s post in the National Health Service.
In addition, the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS) urges patients to look for surgeons with the FRCS (Plast) qualification, which shows they are fully trained in plastic surgery, according to today?s Sunday Times.
Norman Waterhouse, the president of the association, said surgeons not on the specialist register should be barred.
?There are a lot of people calling themselves cosmetic surgeons who have no formal training. We are pressing for them not to be allowed to carry out cosmetic surgery,? he told the paper.
Singh accused the RCS and the association of trying to monopolise the industry.
?This is all about money,? he said. ?The RCS has a strong lobby of plastic surgeons who want to monopolise the market. They will do anything to stop people who are not on the specialist register, or those who do not belong to their organisation, practising cosmetic surgery. The BAAPS is trying to take away the competition.?
When the medical council specialist register was introduced in 1996, doctors who had been practising for years could apply if they had an NHS consultant post. Singh did not qualify because he left the health service in the 1980s, before he became a consultant.
