Doctors said they need to enhance punishment to root out ghost surgery, or illegally changing a surgeon without a patient’s knowledge, according to a survey by the Korean Medical Association’s (KMA) Research Institute for Healthcare Policy.
Ghost surgery sparked the general public’s demand for a mandatory installation of CCTVs in operating rooms.
However, rather than putting CCTV cameras at the entrance of operating rooms, it would be more effective to revoke or suspend the license of a physician who performed an immoral and unethical medical practice and to impose a criminal penalty, the respondents of the KMA survey said.
The KMA’s healthcare policy research unit released the poll results, conducted on 2,345 KMA member physicians from July 6-16.
About 50 percent of the respondents said the revocation of the permit is the most appropriate administrative punishment for shady medical practices. Forty-five percent said the license should be suspended, and 94.4 percent said the permit should be canceled or suspended. Only 0.8 percent said there was no need for punishment.
The respondents also said criminal punishment for ghost surgery should be severe, with 39.2 percent saying imprisonment with forced labor was most appropriate, 31.3 percent, fine, 20.9 percent imprisonment without labor, and 6.5 percent, probation.
When asked what would be the most effective tool to eradicate ghost surgery, 38.3 percent said punishment should get stricter.
The proportion of doctors supporting stricter punishment was higher than 21.8 percent of the respondents who supported the mandatory installation of CCTVs at the entrance of operating rooms.
Another 13.7 percent said there should be a mandatory consent form to prevent ghost surgery, 11.5 percent said doctors should reflect on themselves and perform “self-purification,” and 8.8 percent called for biometric recognition of a surgeon at the entrance of the operating room.
Ninety percent of the doctors opposed a bill that mandates CCTV installation in operating rooms, citing reasons such as violation of human rights of medical staff.
It could also discourage medical care, make doctors passive, leak sensitive information of patients, cause unnecessary medical lawsuits or disputes, and regard doctors as potential criminals, the respondents said.
About 87 percent said they would not record operation scenes on themselves or their family through CCTV cameras.
Woo Bong-sik, director of the Research Institute for Healthcare Policy at the KMA, said it was deplorable that unethical medical practices of some doctors are leading to the justification of the CCTV installation in the operating room.
“As the recent survey confirmed doctors’ willingness for self-purification, it would be more desirable to toughen punishment for ghost surgery, a mandate consent form to prevent ghost surgery, install CCTV at the entrance of the operating room, conduct biometric recognition at the entrance, and reinforce ethics training, rather than forcefully legislating a bill (for the CCTV installation in the operating room),” he said.