Charging $22 for each 90ml bottle of cough syrup, a doctor who practised in Bedok’s Temasek Clinic and Surgery dispensed his drugs under the counter, aiding 30 addicts in their slumps for nine months.
46-year-old Dr Liew Kert Chian supplied the codeine-laced medication without keeping a proper record — reports of the sales were first made in pencil and later erased. The Singapore Medical Council has since sentenced him to a years’ suspension, censure and a fine of $5,000.
A total of 266 litres of Procodin Syrup and 11.4 litres of Beacodyl Syrup were unaccounted for — all of which were noted to be sold in a systemic ploy from January to October 2011.
“By profiting from his patients’ addiction instead of properly treating them for their addiction, Dr Liew had recklessly disregarded the potential harm that could be caused to these patients,” SMC stated in their press release.
The Disciplinary Tribunal found that the doctor had clearly violated his duty “to do no harm”, abusing the trust reposed in him as a medical practitioner.
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