Making the appeal, the president of the Public Doctors' Association, Dr Lai Kang-yiu, said a medical court should have additional powers to rule on maladministration and bad hospital policies - in effect functioning as a medical ombudsman in addition to ruling on disciplinary cases.

But he said half the court's members should be non-medical professionals with no political affiliation. The current council has eight members who hear disciplinary cases, but only one of them is a lay member.

'The power of the Medical Council is now very limited as it can only rule on the professional conduct of doctors,' said Dr Lai after the RTHK's weekly public debate, City Forum. 'Overseas experience shows 80 per cent of medical blunders are related to administrative errors or bad policies in hospitals, with only 20 per cent relating to negligence by individuals.'

Dr Lai, who is not a council member, said investigations should be carried out by a group of medical experts who were not practising doctors to avoid any conflict of interest. The 'ideal' court would have its own final appeal mechanism for patients and doctors, he said.

But Secretary for Health and Welfare Dr Yeoh Eng-kiong said yesterday the proposal was too hasty and premature.

Speaking after a Hong Kong Doctors' Union public function, he said setting up a new body or restructuring the council without extensive public consultation would create confusion and duplication of existing institutions.

'Under the existing system, patients already have a right to bring their grievances to court,' he said.

On Thursday, Dr Yeoh criticised the council's new guidelines for allowing limited use of mobile phones by doctors during operations and said it needed to find ways to regain public confidence.

Dr Leong Che-hung, a former legislator and president of the Academy of Medicine, said a medical court would not work because council disciplinary hearings were not entirely based on principles of law but those of professional misconduct as well.

Legislator Dr Lo Wing-lok, the president of the Hong Kong Medical Association, questioned the practicality of Dr Lai's proposal, saying it would be difficult for medical experts who carry out investigations to be completely 'cut off' from their colleagues.

In a statement issued yesterday, the Public Doctors' Association called on the Department of Justice - which sends lawyers to assist the council's hearings - to make its stand clear on whether it supported the Medical Council's decision on April 11 to clear Dr Tung of professional misconduct.

The association said the department should seek a judicial review if it did not agree with the controversial ruling.

But the request was turned down by Secretary for Justice Elsie Leung Oi-sie, who said the department was not an interested party and did not have legal grounds to launch a judicial review.