Court dismisses surgeon's appeal against professional misconduct verdict
By Claire Huang
POSTED: 01 Jul 2013 6:03 PM
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SINGAPORE: The surgeon involved in one of Singapore’s most serious cases of overcharging in the medical profession will be suspended from practice for three years and fined S$10,000.
This follows the dismissal of Dr Susan Lim's appeal by the country's highest court.
Dr Lim had appealed against the Singapore Medical Council's (SMC) rulings that she committed professional misconduct by overcharging a Bruneian patient, who was part of the royal family.
Last year, she was found guilty of 94 charges of professional misconduct by the SMC's disciplinary committee for charging about S$24 million.
This amount was for the services provided to Pengiran Anak Hajah Damit Pg Pemancha Pg Anak Mohd Alam.
She was handed a three-year suspension and fined S$10,000.
In a 109-page written judgement by the Court of Appeal, the three judges said the ethical obligation of a doctor to not take advantage of his patient, monetarily or otherwise, "operates over and above contractual and market forces".
This essentially means a doctor is first and foremost ethically obliged to charge a fair and reasonable fee.
The appeals court has ruled that a valid agreement between the doctor and patient will not supersede this ethical obligation.
The judges added that there was "clearly sufficient evidence" for all the 94 charges against Dr Lim of professional misconduct in the form of overcharging.
They upheld SMC's disciplinary committee's decision in convicting Dr Lim, describing the way in which the invoices she issued were "unsystematic, arbitrary and ultimately, opportunistic manner".
The appeals court said this is one of the most serious cases, if not the most serious case so far, of overcharging in the medical profession in the local context.
Pointing out that the disciplinary committee noted that Dr Lim is an "exceptionally skilled doctor" and one who displayed "exceptional care to the patient", the judges said these were the reasons why her name was not removed from the register of medical practitioners.
- CNA/xq