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THE Government admitted yesterday it did not have enough manpower to adequately inspect cosmetic surgery advertisements.

  No beauty parlour operator has been successfully prosecuted under the Undesirable Medical Advertisement Ordinance since 1988. Of the eight cases successfully prosecuted under the legislation since then, none was related to plastic surgery.

  Director of Health, Dr Lee Shiu-hung told a Legco Health Services Panel that the Health Department's limited manpower was the cause of the low number of prosecutions.

   He said the department could inspect only 10 to 20 of the hundreds of medical advertisements carried in newspapers and magazines.

  But panel convenor Dr Leong Che-hung said some advertisements for double eyelid surgery and breast augmentation were a flagrant violation of the law because they all constituted surgical treatment.

  Dr Lee said victims could take their cases directly to the Consumer Council or even to the police.

  The Consumer Council has received 67 complaints concerning deceptive sales techniques, overcharging and poor quality services by beauty parlours in the first half of this year compared with 90 for the whole of last year.

  Asked if the department planned to monitor doctors to ensure they did not perform cosmetic surgery for beauty parlours, Dr Lee said doctors were professionals and their self-discipline should be respected.

  All complaints about doctors are at present handled by the Medical Council.

  The Medical Council had received five complaints concerning cosmetic surgery in 1992 and 1993, but the complainants in all cases had refused to testify, he said.

  Dr Leong was also worried that some advanced equipment, such as laser and ultra-sound machines, used in beauty parlours were not regulated by legislation.

  Dr Lee said a study conducted by the Committee on Science and Technology in 1989 suggested that legislation for the use of laser machines was not necessary.

  A code of practice had been drafted in 1990, and the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department was responsible for the safety of laser machines, he said.

  But legislators said the code of practice was inadequate because the effect lasers would have on the human body had still not been determined.



Cosmetic surgery ads furore