| Oz doctors defy cosmetic surgery ban |
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| Friday, 16 November 2007 | |
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However, Australian cosmetic surgeons have blasted the new ruling as bizarre and unfair to patients. The head of plastic surgery as Flinders Medical Centre in South Australia, Dr Phil Griffin, said that for his hospital, it would be "business as usual". Referring to the ministerial decree, he said " I'm not going to comply with that." He stressed the difference between a procedure that was purely cosmetic and one that could be justified on the basis of the wellbeing of the patient, citing the instance of protruding ears, or "bat ears" as they are known in Australia. Under the new order, patients aged 16 or older would not qualify for free surgery to correct this condition. Dr. Griffin said that it was "outrageous" that anyone over 16 could not have the problem corrected on the national health system. "They reach an age of consent and the Government says `No, you have to pay for it'. They're not going to have the money to pay for it. How is that just? I find it really peculiar that we've got a Labor Government that's not looking after poor people. We have this strange situation where the Commonwealth says these are rightfully Medicare operations and the State has signed a contract to provide Medicare operations but is now saying they don't want to. They do have a Medicare item number so they shouldn't be excluded." Another leading plastic surgeon, Dr Tim Proudman, head of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital's plastic surgery unit, described the ministerial decree as a "bizarre decision" and said that his department would continue to accept referrals from family doctors and provide surgical procedures. |
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