M’sian Govt Agency Handling COVID-19 Innovations Allegedly Hires A Deregistered Cosmetic Surgeon As Advisor

If given the three choices below, who would you hire as an advisor for a COVID-19 health programme?

1. A medical physician
2. A cosmetic surgeon
3. A cosmetic surgeon who was sued for malpractice

Unless you want a riot on your hands, you’d go with option 1, right?

If, for whatever reason, you hated all doctors, option 2 would be your only choice, albeit not a great one.

Of course, no one would ever go with option 3 becau—

M’sian Govt Agency Handling COVID-19 Innovations Allegedly Hires A Deregistered Cosmetic Surgeon As Advisor

Oh. 

A Malaysian government agency handling COVID-19 innovations has hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons after it allegedly hired a cosmetic surgeon who was struck off the medical registers in both Malaysia and Australia.

The agency, Malaysian Automotive, Robotics and IoT Institute (MARii), appointed Dr Faizal Anwar as its medical and health data adviser recently.

After the appointment, outraged netizens claimed that this is the same Dr Faizal who had been sued by at least a dozen women in Australia for malpractice.

He was subsequently deregistered by the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency and the Malaysian Medical Council (MMC).

Farhash Mubarak, a member of Parti Keadilan Rakya, an opposition party in Malaysia, was also puzzled by the move.

“The public demands an explanation as to why not only was a cosmetic surgeon appointed to lead a programme concerning public health, and a highly controversial one at that, with a track record of malpractice which is well known both in Malaysia and Australia,” he said.

Malpractice Left Patients With Scars & Deformities

In 2015, Dr Faizal moved to Melbourne to work but was deregistered just two years later due to fears over patient safety.

He was also charged with continuing to treat patients at a clinic, which allegedly left some of them with horrible scars and deformities.

But that wasn’t all.

Several patients allegedly had foreign objects inserted into their noses or ears as fillings, which caused infections and a foul smell.

Surgeons who removed the foreign objects could not identify its material.

For his offences, Dr Faizal was fined A$100,000 (S$101,700) by the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court in 2018.

Deregistered medical practitioners can still work as consultants, but they are not permitted to treat patients directly.

MARii’s Response

In response to the backlash, a MARii representative said that Dr Faizal is not paid by the agency, and that his role is only to advise on medical terminology and literature.

The agency is launching the ImmuSAFE Covid+ biochip, which the health ministry will use to verify vaccine efficacy.

“He’s not directly involved in developing the test kits as claimed (by critics) and he only appeared on (TV news channel) Astro Awani’s Notepad With Ibrahim Sani just in case Datuk Madani couldn’t answer medically related questions,” the MARii representative added.

The episode, which aired on 24 June, has since been taken down from Astro Awani’s site.

MARii chief executive Madani Sahari also told The Straits Times that the agency is still considering whether to issue a statement on the matter.

Feature Image: VALUA STUDIO / Shutterstock.com