- Joined
- Nov 24, 2008
- Messages
- 23,396
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- 113
The recent case of Dr. Jay Lu and his failure to disclose that he had lost his medical practice license in Florida is a worrisome one for many reasons. The response of the authorities and in some cases the non response leaves very much to be desired. I will try to summarize my thoughts as follows:
1)Various agencies were tripping over themselves to support this Doctor. NUH and NCIS came out with statements such as “he has served with diligence and enthusiasm. What does that mean? This guy was kicked out of the Florida medical profession, probably unemployable in the US and any other country that does proper background checks on foreign doctors, he lands in Singapore and he must have been shocked at these idiots fawning over him and offering him a big salary. Heck, I would work with a high degree of diligence too, if I was getting his kind of money, never mind the fact the only hospital job I can get in the US is cleaning toilets.
2) The main question to be asked here is if a Singaporean doctor was found guilty of the same crime and lost his license in Singapore, would he be welcome back and given a new license and a prominent position a short while later? If the answer is “no way”, than why does Dr. Lu get special treatment? In most cases, a Singapore Dr. would be condemned after losing his medical license. This is a case of obvious favouratism, and a case of pride such that the authorities will not offer an apology at all and admit they are wrong.
3)Why is there no word at all from the SMC? After all, they were the ones that licensed this bozo to practice in Singapore in the first place. Why have they not explained the rationale and thought process that went into allowing a known criminal dr. to practice medicine in Singapore.
4)The failure to condemn this doctor strenuously and start legal proceedings against him, totally undermines the integrity of the medical system here. It sends out a message to all miscreant, incompetent, and criminal doctors around the world to come and practice in Singapore and get a good salary, even if you are ban in your own country. In countries like India and China, where a doctor’s past record are not as easily available as those from Florida and the US, how can you the patient, trust that this doctor is not incompetent and did not kill 50 patients in his own country? Certainly, the Dr. Lu case had proven that you cannot trust the SMC to vet all doctors for you, nor can you trust NUH or any other big hospital to do proper background checks on the doctors they hire.
5)How can you set yourself up to be a regional medical centre when you cannot even check out your doctors properly? People in Singapore and medical tourist pay a high price for medical treatments compared to patients in other countries. Should they not expect to have a honest doctor with integrity to look after them? If I pay peanuts and got o Cambodia for medical treatment, I would expect to get a peanut clown of a doctor with suspect credentials. But not in Singapore, it’s not supposed to happen here.
6)This whole episode is made worse because the relevant authorities will not admit fault. Their position is untenable, This is where you find the pervasiveness of the PAP at their worse. All these hospitals are GLCs and dominated by PAP personnel. The PAP’s policy is to never apologize for anything, no matter how egregious it is. And hence you have the situation that you have now. Its much better for the confidence of the consumers and for the attraction of foreigner patients to be seen to do something drastic and admit a flaw and reassure people that something will be done, instead of standing around and covering their backsides.
1)Various agencies were tripping over themselves to support this Doctor. NUH and NCIS came out with statements such as “he has served with diligence and enthusiasm. What does that mean? This guy was kicked out of the Florida medical profession, probably unemployable in the US and any other country that does proper background checks on foreign doctors, he lands in Singapore and he must have been shocked at these idiots fawning over him and offering him a big salary. Heck, I would work with a high degree of diligence too, if I was getting his kind of money, never mind the fact the only hospital job I can get in the US is cleaning toilets.
2) The main question to be asked here is if a Singaporean doctor was found guilty of the same crime and lost his license in Singapore, would he be welcome back and given a new license and a prominent position a short while later? If the answer is “no way”, than why does Dr. Lu get special treatment? In most cases, a Singapore Dr. would be condemned after losing his medical license. This is a case of obvious favouratism, and a case of pride such that the authorities will not offer an apology at all and admit they are wrong.
3)Why is there no word at all from the SMC? After all, they were the ones that licensed this bozo to practice in Singapore in the first place. Why have they not explained the rationale and thought process that went into allowing a known criminal dr. to practice medicine in Singapore.
4)The failure to condemn this doctor strenuously and start legal proceedings against him, totally undermines the integrity of the medical system here. It sends out a message to all miscreant, incompetent, and criminal doctors around the world to come and practice in Singapore and get a good salary, even if you are ban in your own country. In countries like India and China, where a doctor’s past record are not as easily available as those from Florida and the US, how can you the patient, trust that this doctor is not incompetent and did not kill 50 patients in his own country? Certainly, the Dr. Lu case had proven that you cannot trust the SMC to vet all doctors for you, nor can you trust NUH or any other big hospital to do proper background checks on the doctors they hire.
5)How can you set yourself up to be a regional medical centre when you cannot even check out your doctors properly? People in Singapore and medical tourist pay a high price for medical treatments compared to patients in other countries. Should they not expect to have a honest doctor with integrity to look after them? If I pay peanuts and got o Cambodia for medical treatment, I would expect to get a peanut clown of a doctor with suspect credentials. But not in Singapore, it’s not supposed to happen here.
6)This whole episode is made worse because the relevant authorities will not admit fault. Their position is untenable, This is where you find the pervasiveness of the PAP at their worse. All these hospitals are GLCs and dominated by PAP personnel. The PAP’s policy is to never apologize for anything, no matter how egregious it is. And hence you have the situation that you have now. Its much better for the confidence of the consumers and for the attraction of foreigner patients to be seen to do something drastic and admit a flaw and reassure people that something will be done, instead of standing around and covering their backsides.