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Emily Tsang

The Medical Council is considering whether a qualification claimed by a well-known plastic surgeon is misleading.
It comes as a patients' group is urging the watchdog to take the lead in cracking down on false qualifications.
"The council has the responsibility to stop false claims to safeguard the public interest," said Patients' Rights Association spokesman Tim Pang Hung-cheong.
The council is reviewing a complaint against Dr Otto Au Yum-to. Au has said he has a full diploma from the American Board of Plastic Surgery (ABPS) but holds only a board certificate issued 50 years ago.
The complaint alleges that Au had misrepresented himself at least twice: once when he published an article in the Medical Bulletin in 2009 and again when presenting himself as an expert witness in a legal dispute.
Au, founder of the Society of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons, told the South China Morning Post it was a "huge misunderstanding" that he had rectified.
He said the ABPS course he completed was for foreign students and that he had not known his certificate should not be presented as a full diploma.
Terry Cullison of the ABPS said Au held a "special foreign certificate" issued in 1963 that was "never an equivalent" to a full diploma.
Cullison said the certificate was offered only from 1960 to 1973 to international candidates who had completed two or more years of training in the United States or Canada and passed an exam. In contrast, plastic surgeons who obtained a full diploma had to renew the qualification every 10 years by meeting very stringent requirements.
The ABPS diploma is on the Medical Council's List of Quotable Qualifications, but the special certificate is not.
Au said the list should be updated and that his special certificate should be recognised.
Pang said his group was following up with the council after a June report in Next Magazine named almost a dozen medical specialists who misrepresented their qualifications.
The issue of bogus medical qualifications came to attention in 2011, when former chief executive Tung Chee-hwa's daughter-in-law, Dr Fuong Rulin, was accused of misleading patients by claiming to be a paediatrician, even though she is not on the specialist register.


Plastic surgeon's 50-year-old qualifications called into question

Plastic surgeon's qualifications called into question

News

Hong Kong

Doctor claims 'huge misunderstanding' after complaint alleges he exaggerated qualification from American Board of Plastic Surgery


Dr Otto Au Yum-to has said he has a full diploma from the American Board of Plastic Surgery (ABPS) but holds only a board certificate issued 50 years ago.


Plastic surgeon's 50-year-old qualifications called into question

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Doctor claims 'huge misunderstanding' after complaint alleges he exaggerated qualification from American Board of Plastic Surgery

Doctor claims 'huge misunderstanding' after complaint alleges he exaggerated qualification from American Board of Plastic Surgery