Many beauty clinics have been discovered performing unauthorised surgeries and skin injections.

Speaking at a recent seminar on cosmetics surgery held by the city's Health Department, Thuong said the city faced serious challenges controlling violators and asked relevant authorities to step up efforts to control illegal activities.

According to Nguyen Van Nguyen, head of District 10's Health Division, the city has 65 skin clinics that offer cosmetic surgery and 229 facilities with beauty services such as skincare, spa and micro-blading.

The division recently checked four clinics and 19 facilities and detected multiple violations. Fourteen facilities had to pay fines worth more than VND400 million in total.

The most common violations are illegal medical examinations and treatment services, including filler injections and eyelid surgery; unauthorised or false advertising and selling of expired cosmetics or ones without clear origin.

One of the most challenging tasks is detecting violations as facilities often hide or deny their wrongdoings, according to Nguyen.

Authorities find it difficult to identify specific customers and the doctors involved in certain cases, as facilities tend not to disclose this information.

“Surgery procedures are fast and take only 15 to 20 minutes per case, not to mention some facilities decide to set up surveillance cameras to watch out for inspection teams,” he said.

The city also lacked enough manpower to inspect and control the illegal activities, he added.

At the seminar, many experts agreed that authorities need to check whether hospitals, clinics and facilities with cosmetics surgery services are offering legal services; educate locals on pursuing safe surgery practices; strengthen collaboration with quality facilities; and post a list of qualified facilities online.

Meanwhile, Nguyen Thi Thoa from the HCM City Health Department said that severe medical problems occurred at facilities that did not examine the medical history of their patients. “This explains why these facilities tend to freak out when their patients are in trouble."

“No one wants their customers to face negative consequences that affect their lives. That’s why the entire Health Department should identify its drawbacks and come up with new, stronger measures to tackle this problem,” Thuong added.

He said that all beauty facilities should be connected through a network within the health market. “Standing alone will make them a target for inspection,” he said.

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VNS