Aug 10, 2010
Doctor fined over sleeping pills
<!-- by line --> By Lee Hui Chieh
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<!-- end left side bar --> <!-- story content : start --> A GENERAL practitioner has been fined $4,000 for prescribing sleeping pills inappropriately and without proper records to patients, who were on the pills for up to five years. Dr Tham Pak Onn, 72, pleaded guilty to seven charges of professional misconduct for not exercising due care in treating patients with such medication in a disciplinary inquiry held in June by the Singapore Medical Council (SMC).
An SMC spokesman said on Tuesday that Dr Tham had prescribed sleeping pills to seven patients at Tham Dispensary in Geylang between 2002 and 2007, and kept them on the medication for between one year and five years. In a statement on Tuesday, the SMC noted that Dr Tham did not refer the patients to a specialist for further assessment, or came up with a long- term treatment plan.
He also failed to record details of their conditions and symptoms after the initial consultations, it said. The statement noted that patients who are on such medication over the long term could become dependent on it.
Prescribing sleeping pills or sedatives over a prolonged period without proper medical records, or referral to a specialist, was 'inappropriate and unprofessional', it said. But the SMC said that it had decided against a term of suspension - the usual sentence for improper conduct in using sleeping pills - because of strong mitigating factors.
Read the full story in Wednesday's edition of The Straits Times.
