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Doctor fined, censured for spying at patients' records
Posted: 05 January 2012 1230 hrs
SINGAPORE: A doctor has been fined S$10,000 and censured for accessing the medical records of two patients who were not under his charge.
32-year old Dr Tre'gon Singh Randhawa has also given the Singapore Medical Council a written undertaking not to engage in such conduct again.
The Council said a Disciplinary Committee Inquiry was held after it received a complaint on 17 August 2009 from the KK Women's and Children's Hospital, where Dr Singh was employed and practised as a Medical Officer.
He initially faced 80 charges - three of which related to one patient, and the remainder to another.
The charges state he knowingly and intentionally accessed and read the Electronic Medical Records (EMR) of the patients who were not under his care, and he did not obtain their consent.
Dr Singh had also violated the patients' confidentiality and the SingHealth Group's IT Security Policy.
Dr Singh pleaded guilty to six charges of professional misconduct, while the other 74 were taken into consideration in sentencing.
The Singapore Medical Council said the case is the first of its kind and the Disciplinary Committee had to decide, given the unique facts, the appropriate sentence to be meted out.
It said ordinarily, if a doctor accessed the records of a patient not under his care, he ought to be punished with a suspension or striking off.
This is if he acted out of malice or for profit, depending on the circumstances of the case.
However, in making the orders for this case, the Disciplinary Committee is not seeking to create a benchmark sentence or precedent for future cases where similar charges are brought.
The Disciplinary Committee noted that Dr Singh acted out of a sense of desperation and self-protection and that when he did the acts, he had lost his sense of reason and forgot his duty and obligations to patients of KK Hospital.
The Singapore Medical Council said it is a cornerstone of the medical profession ethics, that the privacy of patients is maintained at all times.
Patients therefore have an implicit trust and belief that doctors will not disclose their medical records to third parties without their consent.
To breach this rule is to violate the trust reposed in doctors by members of the public.
The Disciplinary Committee (DC) also considered Dr Singh's mitigating factors, including the following:
- he is a young doctor with a promising medical career, and that save for these instances of misconduct, his record is exemplary;
- he has taken responsibility for his conduct from the first instance it was brought to his attention by his employers and had pleaded guilty thereby saving the DC much time;
- he was not motivated by malice towards the patients when he accessed their EMRs.
- CNA/ck
