PLANS for a massive surgical exercise during which 5,000 children in 30 countries will be operated on for facial deformities were finalised at an international medical conference in Adare yesterday.

FORMER Finance Minister Charlie McCreevy had supported a project to bring disgraced New York plastic surgeon Dr Michael Sachs to Ireland.

PATIENTS needing plastic surgery are waiting for up to five years for treatment in the public health service, one of the country’s leading plastic surgeons said yesterday.