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Hong Kong’s ombudsman will launch an investigation into the support offered by health authorities to professional bodies for tackling complaints, following allegations of a 15-year delay in the handling of an inquiry into a blunder that left a child disabled for life. The Office of the Ombudsman said on Wednesday that the investigation would look into the procedures and mechanisms employed by the secretariat under the Department of Health’s Boards and Councils Office for handling complaints related to alleged blunders and the registration of professionals. The office provides administrative support to 15 healthcare-related statutory bodies, including the Medical Council, the Dental Council and the Nursing Council, among others. “I have decided to launch a full investigation … to identify areas for improvement and to put forward appropriate recommendations,” Ombudsman Jack Chan Jick-chi said. He said that complaint information showed the administrative support offered by the department to those boards and councils might involve “significant delays and therefore be ineffective”. “We are also deeply concerned about the recent media reports alleging an unexplained significant delay of 15 years by the secretariat of the Medical Council of Hong Kong under the Department of Health in handling a serious healthcare incident,” he said, referring to the case concerning paediatrician Dr Sit Sou-chi. Chan said a series of in-depth investigations would look into the department’s regulatory role and responsibilities in supervising the healthcare sector-related complaint, as well as the support provided by relevant offices under the department and its effectiveness. The watchdog hoped the moves could help identify systemic inadequacies and provide recommendations for concrete improvement. The controversial case against Sit was first filed with the Medical Council by mainland Chinese parents Li Zhijian and Peng Hongying in 2010. Their son Li Yuanjian was born at Baptist Hospital in Kowloon Tong on December 19, 2009. The paediatrician was charged with failing to carry out all necessary and immediate investigations after the infant’s first seizure on December 22 that year. The child was left with cerebral palsy and quadriplegia, meaning he is unable to care for himself for life. The inquiry was initially scheduled for 2016 but was postponed at Sit’s request to review new evidence and was later rescheduled to October this year. But the council decided to permanently stay the inquiry on October 28, saying that the proceedings against the doctor had by itself become “oppressive and abusive and must be halted”. Professor Grace Tang Wai-king, chairwoman of the Medical Council, on Wednesday refused to comment further on the row, only saying that the watchdog would review its decision on November 22. The case has drawn high-profile attention following media interviews given by the mainland parents and patients’ rights advocate Tim Pang Hung-cheong, who has been assisting them. On Tuesday, Secretary for Health Lo Chung-mau raised the possibility of revising the Medical Registration Ordinance, which governed the medical watchdog, to see whether any amendments would be needed to procedures for handling complaints. The council had already been requested by Lo to submit a report within eight weeks on the complaints process.
