Provision of liposuction in a medical premise
How do I apply for a liposuction approval if I want to continue providing liposuction services in my premise?
For medical clinics that intend to provide liposuction service, you will need to first apply for approval to become an ASC. Thereafter, you must apply for additional approval to provide liposuction in the ASC.
Personnel
Under what situations shall liposuction be performed in a hospital on an inpatient basis?
Liposuction involving the removal of more than 1 litre of supernatant fat per session or
repeat removal/injection of fats over the same region.
Patients require general anaesthesia or deep sedation.
Patients with Body Mass Index (BMI) of more than 28.
I intend to apply for an ASC approval but my nurse does not have post-registration qualification in Operating Theatre Nursing to oversee the nursing aspects of the service. The nurse has been working with me since I started out in private practice (e.g. for 10 years). Can she qualify if I endorse her working experiences with me? Alternatively, is it possible for me to hire a part time nurse with post-registration qualification in Operating Theatre Nursing to oversee only when i have liposuction cases?
Under the current guidelines for ASCs, The centre shall have a full time registered nurse with post-registration qualification in Operating Theatre Nursing to oversee the nursing aspects of the service. This is a requirement to be approved to become an ASC.
Accreditation
4. Who needs to be accredited with ACL?
All doctors who are currently providing or intending to provide liposuction service in an
ASC and those who are not full-time employees of hospitals but wish to perform
liposuction in the hospitals need to be ACL accredited.
5. I am a doctor in the private practice and have been performing liposuction in an ASC and private hospital. Do I need to be ACL accredited? If so, how do I get accredited?
Yes, you need to be accredited.
You will be given till 28 February 2015 to submit the number of cases performed over the immediate past 2 years to MOH for ACL accreditation. If you fail to meet the accreditation criteria (of performing a minimum of 1 case per month), you must work under preceptorship to accumulate at least 12 cases over the next 1 year. You will be practicing under conditional accreditation.
The form for declaration and submission of the number of liposuction cases is available for download on the eLIS website.
I have not performed liposuction previously and wish to be accredited. What should I do?
Please refer to the Annex of the Licensing Terms and Conditions for the full criteria for
doctors who have not practised liposuction previously.
I am aware of the minimum requirements of performing 1 liposuction cases per month. To save cost for my patients, I perform multiple sites of liposuction at any one time. Can I declare the number of areas performed instead of the number of cases?
You have to perform a minimum of 1 liposuction procedure per month, not the number of areas. This is to maintain and ensure the doctor’s competency.
I am accredited by MOH/ACL but my application was refused by ASC/ private hospitals. Can I still practise liposuction?
The individual ASC/private hospital has a Credentialing Committee to oversee and
credential each doctor based on its own set of credential criteria, which may be more
stringent than ACL’s criteria. If you still wish to practise liposuction in that ASC/hospital,
you will need to satisfy that ASC’s/hospital’s credentialing criteria.
I am accredited but during application with the ASC/hospital, I was informed to provide official documentation from MOH to confirm my status as an accredited liposuction practitioner.
The list of doctors (full and conditional accreditation) accredited by ACL will be published on the eLIS website for institutions’ reference. The list of doctors will be updated regularly.
Quality Assurance
How do I know if the doctors in my peer review group are ACL accredited?
The list of doctors (full and conditional registration) accredited by ACL will be published on the eLIS website for reference. The list of doctors will be updated regularly.
Patients
Do I need to fulfil the 7-days cooling off period if my patient is a Singaporean who lives abroad, return to Singapore and intends to do liposuction for 2 different areas or over a repeated area?
Yes, the 7 days of cooling period must be fulfilled. Exemption will only apply to foreigners
who come to Singapore specifically for the liposuction procedure.
Every repeat liposuction procedure over a particular body region on the same patient
must be treated as a separate procedure in a hospital inpatient setting. The patient must
be given an additional 7-days cooling off period.
The full document can be downloaded below:
Download [.PDF, 18KB]