China’s Ministry of Health (MOH) has launched a nationwide overhaul of the plastic surgery industry, as the number of lawsuits over the increasingly popular medical procedure total 20,000 each year.

The campaign, which will continue until late April, is designed to weed out unregistered and incompetent practitioners from the industry to ensure clients receive quality services, according to a notification issued by the ministry on Tuesday, January 18, 2011.

It is also intended to bring authorities up to date on the procedures involved and the size of the industry, including the number of its practitioners and their credentials.

"Through these efforts, the ministry will further strengthen its regulation and supervision of the industry to better safeguard consumer rights," says Vice-Health Minister Ma Xiaowei.

Around 3 million people had plastic surgery on the mainland in 2010 in an industry worth an annual 15 billion yuan (S$2.9 billion), statistics from the MOH show.

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[Source: Asia One News]