Looks like some of us were right. Pretty devious that he did not reveal that he was paid to run this article in Jakarta Globe by Dr Susan Lim. It was run in Indonesia as the bulk of her clients are rich Indonesians.
Tells you where ethics lie when it comes to anyone associated with SPH and Dr Lim.
Surgeon’s Case Casts Doubt on Singapore’s Legal System
PN Balji | May 25, 2011
Singapore. Beyond the sensational headlines and some below-the-belt tactics used by a government lawyer, the Singapore High Court case of a history-making transplant surgeon has exposed an underside of Singapore’s squeaky clean and upright image.
Whichever way the verdict — expected on Wednesday — goes in the case against surgeon Susan Lim, a seemingly straightforward case of a private fee agreement in the city-state has thrown open serious issues of conflict of interest, prejudging by a medical tribunal against a doctor and re-writing rules midway through the disciplinary inquiry process.
The case revolves around fees charged by Lim, who in 1990 became the first doctor to perform a liver transplant in Asia, for services provided by her team of doctors and nurses treating a cancer patient from the Brunei royal family in 2007. The final bill came up to 12.1 million Singapore dollars, 3.3 million Singapore dollars of which was for third-party costs and for other doctors who helped treat the patient.
After the patient, Pangiran Damit, died in August 2007 after six months of treatment and a six-year battle with breast cancer, Brunei’s Health Ministry went to its Singapore counterpart to seek a discount. All the other bills before 2007, amounting to about 14 million Singapore dollars, had been paid without a fuss.
On receiving the request for discount from Brunei, Singapore’s director of medical services, K. Satku, filed a complaint against Lim to the Singapore Medical Council, of which he was the registrar, and sought to begin a disciplinary inquiry into “overcharging by a medical practitioner.”
At the same time, he ordered five raids on the surgeon’s clinic at Gleneagles Hospital. He also told Brunei not to pay Lim.
He thus played three roles at one time — complainant, raider and prosecutor — presenting a conflict of interest that Lim’s lawyers hammered home during a High Court hearing in March.
The case saw another twist when the three panel members of the disciplinary committee stepped down during the first day of a closed-door hearing in July 2010 following accusations that they had pre-judged the case, a first in the history of medicine in Singapore.
The inquiry was suspended, and rules were rewritten to say there was no longer an obligation on the part of the committee to inform the defendant of advice given by the legal assessor to the disciplinary committee regarding the charge.
The Attorney General’s Chambers denied in court that it was done to target Lim, but then it performed an about-face after saying the change did not apply to her case.
The order to start a second inquiry was given. In the face of those actions by a regulatory body, Lim took her case to the High Court to expose what her lawyer deemed “blatantly unlawful actions.”
In the High Court in March, details of the painstaking nature of Lim’s medical services came to light. Pengiran Damit, the queen’s sister, was presented as someone whose demands on Lim and her team were far from ordinary. She had refused to return to Singapore for treatment on one occasion, forcing Lim to set up an intensive care unit and fly it by private jet to Brunei.
Lim was required to be on 24/7 standby for six months. This extended to the time when Lim had undergone eye surgery and was recovering in a hospital bed. Pengiran Damit insisted the doctor be by her side, despite the possibility that Lim could be blinded in one eye if she moved around too much. Lim had to be transported from her own hospital bed to attend to her.
There was also an attempt by government lawyer Alvin Yeo to accuse Lim of marking up the bills of other doctors who had helped her in treating the patient. This was fiercely denied by the doctors involved, who submitted sworn affidavits refuting the accusation immediately.
A few hours after the proceedings ended, the medical council announced the appointment of Chew Suok Kai as its deputy registrar and said he would be taking over K. Saktu’s duties. That post did not previously exist. A provision was made in the law and sanctioned in the Singapore Parliament in January 2010.
All of this has made the case embarrassing for the government, which has already come under attack for a series of missteps that turned into hot-button issues during the recent general elections.
For those in the medical profession and beyond, all eyes will be on the court today.
Goh Seng Heng, medical director of the Aesthetic Medical Partners, said: “This case is very important to all of us in the profession. It has thrown into doubt the way the medical council conducts its inquiry process.”
Another doctor said: “Very seldom do doctors take the medical tribunal to court. Dr. Lim has taken that bold step. We are all waiting to see which way the verdict will go.”
PN Balji is former deputy editor of the Straits Times
Tells you where ethics lie when it comes to anyone associated with SPH and Dr Lim.
Surgeon’s Case Casts Doubt on Singapore’s Legal System
PN Balji | May 25, 2011
Singapore. Beyond the sensational headlines and some below-the-belt tactics used by a government lawyer, the Singapore High Court case of a history-making transplant surgeon has exposed an underside of Singapore’s squeaky clean and upright image.
Whichever way the verdict — expected on Wednesday — goes in the case against surgeon Susan Lim, a seemingly straightforward case of a private fee agreement in the city-state has thrown open serious issues of conflict of interest, prejudging by a medical tribunal against a doctor and re-writing rules midway through the disciplinary inquiry process.
The case revolves around fees charged by Lim, who in 1990 became the first doctor to perform a liver transplant in Asia, for services provided by her team of doctors and nurses treating a cancer patient from the Brunei royal family in 2007. The final bill came up to 12.1 million Singapore dollars, 3.3 million Singapore dollars of which was for third-party costs and for other doctors who helped treat the patient.
After the patient, Pangiran Damit, died in August 2007 after six months of treatment and a six-year battle with breast cancer, Brunei’s Health Ministry went to its Singapore counterpart to seek a discount. All the other bills before 2007, amounting to about 14 million Singapore dollars, had been paid without a fuss.
On receiving the request for discount from Brunei, Singapore’s director of medical services, K. Satku, filed a complaint against Lim to the Singapore Medical Council, of which he was the registrar, and sought to begin a disciplinary inquiry into “overcharging by a medical practitioner.”
At the same time, he ordered five raids on the surgeon’s clinic at Gleneagles Hospital. He also told Brunei not to pay Lim.
He thus played three roles at one time — complainant, raider and prosecutor — presenting a conflict of interest that Lim’s lawyers hammered home during a High Court hearing in March.
The case saw another twist when the three panel members of the disciplinary committee stepped down during the first day of a closed-door hearing in July 2010 following accusations that they had pre-judged the case, a first in the history of medicine in Singapore.
The inquiry was suspended, and rules were rewritten to say there was no longer an obligation on the part of the committee to inform the defendant of advice given by the legal assessor to the disciplinary committee regarding the charge.
The Attorney General’s Chambers denied in court that it was done to target Lim, but then it performed an about-face after saying the change did not apply to her case.
The order to start a second inquiry was given. In the face of those actions by a regulatory body, Lim took her case to the High Court to expose what her lawyer deemed “blatantly unlawful actions.”
In the High Court in March, details of the painstaking nature of Lim’s medical services came to light. Pengiran Damit, the queen’s sister, was presented as someone whose demands on Lim and her team were far from ordinary. She had refused to return to Singapore for treatment on one occasion, forcing Lim to set up an intensive care unit and fly it by private jet to Brunei.
Lim was required to be on 24/7 standby for six months. This extended to the time when Lim had undergone eye surgery and was recovering in a hospital bed. Pengiran Damit insisted the doctor be by her side, despite the possibility that Lim could be blinded in one eye if she moved around too much. Lim had to be transported from her own hospital bed to attend to her.
There was also an attempt by government lawyer Alvin Yeo to accuse Lim of marking up the bills of other doctors who had helped her in treating the patient. This was fiercely denied by the doctors involved, who submitted sworn affidavits refuting the accusation immediately.
A few hours after the proceedings ended, the medical council announced the appointment of Chew Suok Kai as its deputy registrar and said he would be taking over K. Saktu’s duties. That post did not previously exist. A provision was made in the law and sanctioned in the Singapore Parliament in January 2010.
All of this has made the case embarrassing for the government, which has already come under attack for a series of missteps that turned into hot-button issues during the recent general elections.
For those in the medical profession and beyond, all eyes will be on the court today.
Goh Seng Heng, medical director of the Aesthetic Medical Partners, said: “This case is very important to all of us in the profession. It has thrown into doubt the way the medical council conducts its inquiry process.”
Another doctor said: “Very seldom do doctors take the medical tribunal to court. Dr. Lim has taken that bold step. We are all waiting to see which way the verdict will go.”
PN Balji is former deputy editor of the Straits Times
