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Hong Kong health authorities have ordered a review of the city’s Medical Council after it terminated an inquiry into a paediatrician due to a prolonged procedural delay of 8½ years, as the regulatory body promised to respond within eight weeks. The move by the government came on Thursday, a day after the Patients’ Rights Association argued that the council’s ruling – the first involving a suspected medical blunder – could allow doctors to evade responsibility in future cases. The government said it was highly concerned about the handling of the case, as Secretary for Health Lo Chung-mau wrote to council chairwoman Grace Tang Wai-king and required an account of the mechanism for dealing with complaint investigations and disciplinary inquiries. “[He asked the council] to carry out a holistic review and introduce improvement recommendations in the light of the complaint case,” it said. It added that the council should respond to the expectations of the public and society concerning the standards and ethical conduct of healthcare professionals. “The council must uphold its mission of ensuring justice, maintaining professionalism and protecting the public,” it said. The government stressed that all regulatory bodies on healthcare professions were responsible for handling complaints against practitioners through a fair, impartial, transparent and efficient investigation and disciplinary mechanism. It added that regulatory bodies must be accountable to the public for safeguarding the overall interest of society as they discharge their duties. Tang on Thursday told the Post that the council would reply to the Health Bureau within eight weeks. The review stemmed from the case against Dr Sit Sou-chi, a paediatrician, who was accused of a medical blunder in Baptist Hospital on December 22, 2009. Sit was charged with allegedly failing to perform necessary and immediate examinations or applying treatment – a delay of 3½ hours following a newborn patient’s epileptic seizure – which later resulted in cerebral palsy and quadriplegia, leaving the child unable to care for himself for life. The baby’s parents filed a complaint with the council in 2010. The inquiry was originally scheduled to begin in 2016, but was postponed at the request of Sit to review new evidence. The case was only rescheduled for this month, after the couple said the council’s secretariat failed to set a new date and sent a legal letter to the regulatory body last year. But the council’s inquiry panel on Tuesday ordered a stay of proceedings, which the association deemed a “bad and unjust” precedent that could allow doctors suspected of negligence and malpractice to escape accountability. The association also threatened to launch a judicial review and appeal to Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu over what it called “injustice”, if the council failed to overturn its decision in two weeks. Association spokesman Tim Pang Hung-cheong told the Post that it was a “rare move” for the government to publicly place pressure on the council. But he noted that the Department of Health was also suspected of neglecting its duty, as it provided services for the secretariat, and that the director of health was also a council member. He added that he hoped the inquiry panel could review its ruling to meet the public’s expectations.
