Imagine if you will, breaking your hand and then being informed by the doctor to get back to work two days after that.
A construction worker was told just that when he received treatment at Raffles Hospital — and his injury got even worse days after he was discharged.
The errant doctor has since been found guilty of professional misconduct and was suspended for six months, according to the Singapore Medical Council (SMC). It took over four years for the judgement to be passed since the time of the incident in 2011, but justice was indeed served in the end.
51-year-old Dr Wong Him Choon had treated the worker on Sep 3, 2011 after an accident at a construction site. He assessed that the patient sustained a distal radius fracture on his right hand, and performed surgery on it the next day.
After getting discharged on the day of the operation, the worker was merely given a medical certificate to cover his hospitalisation for two days. Dr Wong certified the patient — who had just went through surgery — fit for light duties for one month, starting from the day after the operation.
Obviously, it didn’t turn out well for the construction worker. He was admitted at Changi General Hospital on a couple of days after the surgery on Sep 11 for experiencing pain, and had to be hospitalised for 19 days.
It was only during a scheduled review on Oct 5 that Dr Wong issued a backdated medical certificate to cover the patient’s absence from work from Sep 6 to Nov 20.
An expert in Hand and Reconstructive Microsurgery testified in the trial, stating that two days of hospitalisation leave was insufficient for a patient with that fracture. The protocol for such cases after surgery would be to certify four to eight weeks of medical leave, according to the expert.
Dr Wong was found to have failed in his duty to discuss with the patient and establish conditions for adequate rest and rehabilitation. Aside from the six-month suspension, he will be censured and will have to cover SMC’s costs for the legal proceedings.
The case against the errant doctor was also partly due to the efforts of Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics (HOME), who were the ones who filed a complaint against him.
“The complaint was made because of grave concerns that doctors might be in collusion with companies to discourage workers from taking medical leave, and filing work injury compensation claims, even though the workers were seriously injured,” HOME wrote.
“We are heartened by the High Court’s decision and glad that justice has been served.”
