LIPOSUCTION can leave the patient with ugly, non-aesthetic results, especially if it's done by the wrong doctor.

Ms Kym Wong found this out the hard way when she was left with orange peel-like skin on her tummy and purplish skin on her love handles.

She's not the only one affected by sub-standard liposuction done by non-specialist doctors.

Liposuction is the first area the Ministry of Health (MOH) is proposing to regulate as a special care service under the Private Hospitals and Medical Clinics Act.

Under the proposal, any clinic that offers liposuction must obtain prior approval from MOH and comply with specific licensing conditions.

Ms Wong had seen a poster while walking past a clinic in an Orchard Road shopping centre one day. It offered a no-pain liposuction procedure with fast recovery time.

Although the 40-year-old businesswoman was a fit 50kg, she had stubborn areas of fat which wouldn't go away, no matter how much she exercised.

'That was around my tummy and on my love handles,' she said in an interview with The New Paper.

The idea that she could get liposuction done and recover quickly appealed toher.

'I wanted to fit it around my travelling schedule,' she said, laughing at how naive and impulsive she was about a serious procedure.

She has to travel very often for work.

She went into the posh-looking clinic, asked about the procedure and quickly agreed to have it done.

'On hindsight, it was my fault. I didn't ask what the doctor's qualifications were. I was in a rush, did not do any reading or research.

'It was like impulse shopping.

She added: 'They never represented to me that he was a plastic surgeon. I just assumed that he was because I thought only plastic surgeons could do liposuction.'

It was only after the procedure, when she was talking to the staff and looking at the doctor's certificates hanging on the wall, that she wondered about his qualifications.

'I didn't see any certificate on plastic surgery, so I asked the staff where he studied plastic surgery.

'A nurse said he's an aesthetician. That was a shock to me,' she said. 'Are aestheticians allowed to do liposuction?'

Later, she realised her stomach was uneven and did not look smooth.

'It looked a little like orange peel and one side of my belly button sagged,' she said. The skin around where her love handles were had become purplish.

'He had sucked out too much fat,' said Ms Wong.

The doctor tried to rectify it by offering massages to even out the kinks.

'He said over time, it would get better,' said Ms Wong.

Unfortunately, it didn't.

Ms Wong decided to see a proper plastic surgeon for help and consulted Dr Woffles Wu at Camden Medical Centre.

Dr Wu re-contoured her stomach with fat from her legs.

'He also injected some fat from my legs into my overdone love handles. Everything looks and feels good now,' she said.

She also had her thighs contoured by DrWu 'because I wanted skinnier thighs'.

The correction and leg work were done in one operation under general anaesthesia.

It cost her $50,000.

She paid $10,000 for the first operation which was done under local anaesthesia.

Although she feels she has herself to blame, she also feels the doctor should have been more upfront about about his qualifications.

'Perhaps that would have stopped me from being so impulsive,' she said.

According to five plastic surgeons, doctors and their nurses The New Paper spoke to, there are many more botched cases.

Dr Wu sees four to five such cases a week.

Another plastic surgeon who declined to be named also sees a similar number a week.

He said: 'But they do not all come just from general practitioners here.

'Some come from around the region, and a few come because they are not satisfied with another specialist's work.'

LUMPS UNDER EYES

In another case, British citizen Karen Lyons, who has been a permanent resident here for six years, went to a GP on Robinson Road for facial peeling, microdermabrasion and Botox injections.

'The doctor then suggested that she do some fillers under the eyes for me. She did it once and it was okay,' Ms Lyons said.

'She did a second time and it was a complete mess. Under my right eye, there were three big lumps.'

Under her left eye were many little lumps and one big lump.

The 45-year-old management consultant was horrified.

'It looked very obvious, like something was growing out from under my eyes,' she said.

The doctor said she would fix the problem for free and used laser treatment to try to melt the lumps.

When there were no results, Ms Lyons consulted Dr Wu, who injected a different filler to make her eyes look more normal.

'Thank goodness. In my line of work, how one looks is important,' she said.

Ms Lyons estimated that she spent about $10,000 on the first doctor, and another $4,000 with Dr Wu.