A general practitioner who was convicted of selling nearly 280L of cough syrup to more than 30 addicts without prescriptions over a nine-month period has been suspended from practising medicine for 12 months by the Singapore Medical Council (SMC).

Dr Liew Kert Chian, who ran Temasek Clinic and Surgery at Bedok South, must also pay a S$5,000 penalty, said the SMC yesterday.

The doctor had supplied 90ml bottles of cough syrup to addicts at S$22 each from January to October in 2011. Records of the sales were first made in pencil in their treatment cards and then later erased, to leave no record of these sales in the dispensary record and treatment cards. This resulted in 73 canisters containing 277.4L of cough syrup being unaccounted for.

Dr Liew was convicted and fined S$4,500 by the Subordinate Courts in 2013.

In his mitigation plea to a disciplinary tribunal convened by the SMC, Dr Liew said he has since revamped his clinic’s record-keeping and medicine-dispensing system with stringent checks and balances in place.

But the disciplinary tribunal noted that this was not a case of mere carelessness to keep proper records but a “systematic ploy”. It added that his underlying motivation to deliberately conceal sales of cough syrup to addicts was an aggravating factor that could not be ignored.

“This clearly showed a high degree of planning and a systematic and deliberate concealment of such sales from the records by the respondent,” said the tribunal in their grounds of decision published online yesterday.

Furthermore, Dr Liew also knew that the registered patients at his clinics were cough syrup addicts but he disregarded the potential harm that could be caused to them and “saw it fit to profit from their addiction instead of properly treating them of the addiction”, added the tribunal.

He should also have known that erasing the prescription from the patient’s treatment card could adversely impact and endanger the patient’s subsequent treatment and management.

“Hence, the respondent had clearly violated his duty “to do no harm” and abused the trust reposed in him as a medical practitioner,” said the tribunal.

Dr Liew’s suspension started on March 19. LAURA PHILOMIN

Source:
courtesy of TODAY

by Laura Elizabeth Philomin

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