A woman who was rushed to hospital after her lung was punctured during routine cosmetic surgery has called for tighter regulation of the multibillion-dollar industry.

Krystle Morgan from Barrack Heights, south of Wollongong, had a breast enlargement procedure at The Cosmetic Institute in Bondi in September 2014 and was short of breath when she awoke from surgery.

She was transferred to St Vincent's Hospital where she was treated for a collapsed lung.

She told Fairfax Media she was shocked to learn for the first time on Tuesday that she had been given an unsafe cocktail of drugs and said she had no idea the cosmetic surgery industry was largely unregulated.

She said she had no idea in 2014 that The Cosmetic Institute was not regulated by the same standards required of hospitals and day procedure centres.

"I think the cosmetic surgery industry should definitely be much better regulated," she said. "I had no idea that it wasn't when I had my procedure done."

Ms Morgan, now 34, received a letter from the NSW Health Care Complaints Commission on Tuesday informing her she was one of six patients who had serious complications during cosmetic surgery procedures at the facility.

The letter from the HCCC, a copy of which was given to Fairfax Media, says Ms Morgan and the other patients were given unsafe doses of a cocktail of sedative drugs that made them unconscious without their consent.

The six patients suffered potentially fatal complications and 33 were exposed to questionable levels of sedation at The Cosmetic Institute, the HCCC letter said.

"It appears from the letter that I may have been overdosed on anaesthesia and that I was not in twilight sedation," Ms Morgan said.

"I'm shocked because I thought I would be told about that. I didn't expect to find out in a letter.

"That was the first time in a year and a half that I was advised of that."

Ms Morgan said she had been told The Cosmetic Institute was not licensed to administer more than conscious sedation.

"I was under the impression that I wouldn't be given more than they were licensed to offer," she said.

Ms Morgan said the HCCC was still investigating her case, including the anaesthetist involved in her procedure.

Ms Morgan said that, after having the procedure, she complained that her back was starting to ache and she was short of breath. But she was told this was "normal".

"I couldn't breathe and I was told it is normal to be short of breath," she said. "This sensation continued to the point where they told me they were calling an ambulance for a routine check and that sometimes it's normal for tall thin girls to have lungs collapse for no given reason.

"I arrived at emergency and was given X-rays where I was told that I had a large hole in my right lung where the needle had gone through and completely deflated my lung."

Ms Morgan said the surgeon visited her at St Vincent's Hospital every day with flowers.

"He told me on examination while I was lying in hospital that I should be happy with the results, my breasts look great," she said.

The Australian Society of Plastic Surgeons said on Wednesday the HCCC findings were "shocking and highlight the urgent need for governments to regulate the cosmetic surgery industry".

Associate Professor Hugh Bartholomeusz, president of the Australian Society of Plastic Surgeons, said it had been lobbying state governments around Australia to tighten laws around the use of high volume anaesthesia and "conscious sedation", and surgery in unlicensed premises "as well as appropriate surgical qualifications for those performing cosmetic surgery".

"Our number one priority is patient safety and it is for that reason we have been, over many years, calling for nationally consistent regulations to help provide protection against the kind of practices that have been reportedly occurring at The Cosmetic Institute," he said.

"The sooner governments act to help clean up the industry in the interests of patients' welfare, the better. It is completely unacceptable that this has been allowed to occur."

Professor Bartholomeusz said an increasing number of doctors were turning their hands to cosmetic surgery with more sophisticated operations being undertaken in doctors' offices and unlicensed premises around Australia, creating potentially dangerous scenarios.

"Unfortunately consumers are ill-equipped to discern whether the doctor they choose for their cosmetic surgery is adequately trained to perform their procedure, and whether the facility in which they have their surgery is accredited, and therefore it is incumbent on governments to provide tighter oversight of this growing area of practice," he said.

A NSW Health spokeswoman said its discussion paper on cosmetic surgery, released in December, raised a number of complex issues about the regulation of facilities undertaking cosmetic surgery.

"The ministry is in the process of working through these issues before a final decision is made relating to the regulation of cosmetic surgery facilities," the spokeswoman said.

Fairfax Media has reported at least four cases involving the emergency transfer of patients from The Cosmetic Institute to hospital.

They included the case of Amy Rickhuss who went into cardiac arrest during cosmetic surgery at The Cosmetic Institute's Parramatta clinic on January 30, 2015.

She was rushed to Westmead Hospital's emergency unit and early reports from The Cosmetic Institute indicated that she "had a reaction to the anaesthetic".

Fairfax Media later revealed Ms Rickhuss, 21, was given Intralipid, a drug most commonly used to treat an overdose of local anaesthetic.

Fairfax Media also revealed a 22-year-old woman from Mordialloc in Victoria was rushed to St Vincent's Hospital emergency unit from The Cosmetic Institute's Bondi clinic after having serious complications during a breast enlargement procedure.

Fairfax Media understands the woman, who did not wish to be identified, had planned to return to The Cosmetic Institute to complete the procedure and had no complaints about her treatment.

The HCCC report said two patients flatlined while having breast enlargements at The Cosmetic Institute clinics and needed to be resuscitated, another suffered a seizure, and a third went into ventricular tachycardia and needed to be resuscitated.

Patients were routinely given adrenalin with a cocktail of sedative drugs "well above the accepted upper limit of safe dosage", and "an overdose of adrenalin is likely to have contributed to some of the adverse outcomes seen in patients", the report says.

The Cosmetic Institute markets breast augmentations performed under conscious sedation, using the local anaesthetic. But patients were given a combination of sedative drugs that in many cases "were consistent with general anaesthesia" and "in excess of the safe upper limit recommended for these drugs".

The Cosmetic Institute general manager Andrew Gill said the clinics had taken steps to address the issues, but disputed the HCCC's finding that the clinics had put the health and safety of the public at risk.

All TCI surgeries in NSW were now performed at Concord Private Hospital under deep sedation or general anaesthetic, Mr Gill said in a statement to Fairfax Media.

"TCI is also reviewing consent procedures and documentation to ensure that patients are fully aware of the level of sedation under which they will placed," he said.

He added that 14,000 patients had been treated at the clinics over the period investigated by the HCCC.