1 Cuntry, 2 Systems - PAP-linked doc get away with murder...

[kojakbt]

Just read this 2 news and see what you bros can conclude?

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<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>Ex-NMP suspended from medical practice
</TD></TR><TR><TD><!-- headline one : end --></TD></TR><TR><TD>Toh Keng Kiat failed to conduct key test before patient's chemotherapy </TD></TR><TR><TD><!-- show image if available --></TD></TR><TR vAlign=bottom><TD width=330>

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The omission by Dr Toh Keng Kiat led to a flare-up of the patient's hepatitis-B infection. He later died. -- PHOTO: LIANHE ZAOBAO
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A CONSULTANT haematologist has been suspended from practice for three months for failing to test a cancer patient for hepatitis-B ahead of chemotherapy.

Such a test is considered standard procedure, but the omission by Dr Toh Keng Kiat, a former Nominated Member of Parliament (NMP), led to a flare-up of the patient's hepatitis-B.

The patient died in May 2005.
Dr Toh's suspension took effect on Oct 30.

The patient, who had cancer of the lymph nodes, had consulted Dr Toh at his Camden Medical Centre clinic on Feb 3, 2005.

Without first testing for hepatitis-B, Dr Toh put the patient on chemotherapy between Feb 11 and April 26 that year, said a statement from the Singapore Medical Council (SMC) yesterday.

Hepatitis-B, which is endemic here, is a chronic viral infection that can lead to cirrhosis and liver cancer.

Dr Robert Lim, who heads the department of haematology-oncology at The Cancer Institute at the National University Hospital, explained that many cancer treatment regimens include significant doses of steroids, which have been linked to a higher risk of a flare-up of hepatitis-B, which in turn results in inflammation of the liver.

'This might lead to a compromise in liver function, or even death from liver failure. For that reason, we generally screen such patients for hepatitis-B to determine if they are carriers,' he said.

A cancer patient found to be a hepatitis-B carrier first has to be treated to control the replication of the hepatitis virus before being started on chemotherapy.

The patient in Dr Toh's case was eventually tested for hepatitis-B on May 12.

He was hospitalised at Gleneagles Hospital, but Dr Toh discharged him three days later, although his condition was serious and potentially life-threatening.

The patient died 14 days later, on May 26, of hepatitis-B, with his cancer, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, as a contributing condition.
The patient's wife lodged a formal complaint against Dr Toh with the SMC three months later.

The SMC convened a disciplinary inquiry on Sept 28 and 29 this year.
Asked why it had taken four years for the case to be heard, an SMC spokesman told The Straits Times that the length of time taken depended on investigations, including the time taken to source medical experts and await their input.

Dr Toh pleaded guilty to two charges of failing to make an adequate evaluation of the patient's condition and to manage the hepatitis-B infection which developed during the chemotherapy.

Apart from the three-month suspension, the SMC also censured Dr Toh and ordered him to give a written undertaking that he would not engage in similar conduct.

He also had to make good on the expenses of the proceedings.
The council's spokesman said there was no prescribed penalty, as the facts in each case are different.

Dr Toh, who was an NMP between January 1992 and December 1996, is now overseas and could not be reached for comment.

 

[kojakbt]

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>S'pore doc suspended in Britain as well
</TD></TR><TR><TD><!-- headline one : end --></TD></TR><TR><TD>Gynaecologist's conduct was abhorrent and disgraceful, says UK court </TD></TR><TR><TD><!-- Author --></TD></TR><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By K.C. Vijayan

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A GYNAECOLOGIST suspended from practising here for two years after his affair with a patient has had the book thrown at him in Britain as well.

Dr Yeong Cheng Toh, 44, was in London when the Singapore Medical Council (SMC) sanctioned him in February 2008 for his affair, during which he changed his lover's medical records and revealed details about another patient to her.
In January this year, a British panel also suspended him from practice for a year from the London fertility clinic where he had found employment.

The former consultant gynaecologist at KK Women's & Children's Hospital appealed against the suspension in a London High Court but lost. He has taken his case to a three-judge court and it is due to be heard next March.

Although Justice Philip Sales' judgment was given in July, no grounds were published until Dr Yeong filed his appeal over a month ago. The appeal date was set on Monday.

The doctor left his wife and three children for Britain in December 2005 to escape his lover's harassment, according to the written judgment. When he ended the affair in July that year, she bombarded him and his wife with text messages, phone calls and visits.

During their relationship he had given her more than $90,000 as she had threatened to tell his wife about their affair.

Dr Yeong found work at the CRM Fertility Clinic in London in December 2005. Around that time, his ex-lover complained to the SMC.

He told his new employer that he was under probe in Singapore.

He pleaded guilty to four charges of professional misconduct and, in February last year, the SMC said he was being suspended for two years.

Justice Sales noted that despite that suspension, Dr Yeong never stopped working as a doctor.

In January, his case went before a disciplinary panel of the UK General Medical Council (GMC) and he was meted the maximum penalty of a year's suspension.
Justice Sales said the panel went for the maximum penalty to send a strong signal that Dr Yeong's conduct had been 'abhorrent and disgraceful'.

It had noted that his conduct was 'not easily remediable'. He had breached his duty to the vital doctor-patient relationship by carrying on the affair for two years.
Lawyer Robert Kellar, for Dr Yeong, argued that the one-year suspension was excessive and produced testimonials from Dr Yeong's colleagues and patients describing him as caring and empathetic.

But the judge felt it was important to send 'a clear public statement of the importance of the fundamental standard of professional conduct in relation to relationships between medical practitioners and patients'.

Justice Sales also rejected the lawyer's argument that the panel had improperly gone for parity with the SMC decision instead of imposing its own view.
Mr Kellar cited the case of the former National Neuroscience Institute chief Simon Shorvon, who had been sacked for ethical breaches which the GMC did not follow with its own inquiry. The SMC also failed when it applied to a UK court in 2006 to have the GMC proceed with the inquiry.

Dismissing this, Justice Sales said the 'SMC's views reflected a common approach to such matters in both Singapore and the United Kingdom, as the SMC itself pointed out'.

The panel did not refer to the SMC's decision in suspending Dr Yeong.
'On the contrary, it made it very clear that it was forming its own views on the question of sanction,' he said.

 

[TeeKee]

you scratch my back i scratch yours?

thanks for the good show, toothless tiger?

 

[kojakbt]

Doc kenna 2 year ban from SMC for having an affair with patient. But the ex-NMP doc only kenna 3 month ban for killing a patient!

Looks like killing patient is even better than having affair with patient! The hum sup doc should have killed the woman patient instead of farking her... he will only get 3 month ban instead of 2 years...

HAHAHA!

 

[TeeKee]

Mr Kellar cited the case of the former National Neuroscience Institute chief Simon Shorvon, who had been sacked for ethical breaches which the GMC did not follow with its own inquiry. The SMC also failed when it applied to a UK court in 2006 to have the GMC proceed with the inquiry.

you have been made us of...now my daughter wants to be CEO, please vacate your position!