Doctor convicted of prescribing inappropriate medication
Published on Nov 22, 2011
By Janice Tai
The Singapore Medical Council (SMC) has censured a former general practitioner, Dr Tan Teck Hong, 54, for inappropriately prescribing certain cough mixtures to his patients.
The disciplinary committee - which held an inquiry on Oct 11 - found Dr Tan negligent in managing the duration of the treatment and the amount of benzodiazepines and codeine containing cough mixtures prescribed to his patients.
As a result, the committee noted that Dr Tan's patients could have become addicted to the cough mixtures or had the means of fuelling an existing addiction. Dr Tan's practice was at Excelsior Clinic and Surgery located at Bukit Batok East.
To deter medical practitioners from indiscriminately prescribing medication, which in its view was done for 'obvious financial gains', it has ordered Dr Tan to be suspended from practice for a period of three months starting from Nov 1, be fined $5,000 and censured.
He was convicted of a total of 16 charges of professional misconduct for failing to exercise due care in the management of his patients.
Read the full story in Tuesday's edition of The Straits Times.
