The Medical Council handed down its harshest punishment ever by striking a doctor off the medical register indefinitely for having sex with and living with a psychiatric patient for nine years.
The council said the reason for the severity of the sentence was that the offence by Win Yu, previously a medical officer in United Christian Hospital's psychiatry department, was at the 'high end of gravity'.
'The fact that the offence was committed on a particularly vulnerable psychiatric patient further aggravates the offence,' council chairwoman Felice Lieh Mak said.
'It is common for a psychiatric patient to develop a relationship and feelings for their doctor. Doctors cannot take advantage of these feelings, especially for sexual relations. This is a very basic principle of a doctorpatient relationship,' she said.
The council said it took an 'unprecedented move' to remove the doctor's name from the general register of medical practitioners with immediate effect upon its publication in the Gazette because the defendant 'poses a danger to the public and the immediate removal is necessary for the protection of the public'.
It also ruled Dr Win could not be returned to the register for 10 years.
Dr Win was found guilty on 10 of 15 counts of professional misconduct. The council found him guilty of two charges of improper relations with the woman, known only as patient A. He was also found guilty of other offences including improperly accessing patient records, failing to keep prescription records and failing to deal properly with drugs returned by patients. But he was cleared of four other charges of improper relations with four female patients.