Doctors working for a spine surgery hospital in the western port city of Incheon have been arrested on charges of surrogate surgery, in which they allegedly made office workers without medical licenses take part in the operations.
According to Incheon Metropolitan Police Station, three doctors, who are co-directors of a renowned hospital in the district specializing in spinal disc surgery, were arrested on Aug. 31, along with three staff of the hospital. The district court judge issued arrest warrants following a request by the prosecution, acknowledging concerns of them fleeing.
The investigation began after a media report, which included around 10 hours’ video footage of the operations in the hospital. The doctors reportedly had one of the employees make an incision in the back of a patient, and after around five minutes’ work by the doctor, another employee sutured the wounds. The patients reportedly were unaware of the fact as they were lying face down.
Police suspected that the hospital had the non-medical staff carry out the procedures to cut labor costs of doctors and to enable more operations to be concluded faster, but the doctors denied the allegations. The hospital was designated by the Ministry of Health and Welfare as a specialist in spinal disc treatment and grew in size to include over 100 beds.
This is not the first time that “ghost surgeries” have made headlines over the past few years. There have been incidents in which nurses, nursing assistants, hospital office workers or medical equipment salespeople undertook doctors’ tasks.
This has increased calls for cameras to be installed in operating rooms, but most doctors have opposed the demand, saying they could infringe on the rights of patients and doctors as it deems doctors are potential criminals while private videos of patients can be leaked.
In response to patients’ calls, however, the National Assembly approved a bill on Aug. 31 making it compulsory to install surveillance cameras in operating rooms.
