Doctor struck off register for 2 months
The Medical Council ruled yesterday that a doctor be removed from the general register for two months for possessing nine types of dangerous drugs whose amount did not tally with the record that all doctors are required to keep.
Tse So-so was also required to take a course on the proper keeping of records for dangerous drugs, and to undergo peer supervision for a year. Sporadic checks would be made on her every few months after she resumed practice.
On May 3, 2004, Department of Health officials inspected Tse's clinic in Yuen Long and found discrepancies between the stock of drugs and amounts recorded in the register.
The stock comprised nine types of drugs, including phentermine, which helps weight loss, a hypnotic medicine called chlordiazepoxide, and the anti-anxiety treatment diazepam, and involved 9,000 tablets, the council heard.
Tse was fined HK$108,000 by a magistrate in 2005, but the conviction was quashed on appeal to the Court of First Instance for technical reasons. The Court of Final Appeal ruled that the convictions were wrongly quashed, but they were not restored on compassionate grounds as Tse's career had been hurt because the case had dragged on for so long.
Tse said at July's council hearing that the discrepancy in drug records had occurred because nurses had made incorrect entries in the register, but the council said the keeping of the drug register was her sole responsibility.
Tse had previously admitted that she had left her drug cabinet unlocked and allowed assistants unsupervised access.
Council chairwoman Professor Felice Lieh Mak said members had considered her clear record and the five stressful years she had experienced. But she said the council was not convinced that the doctor's performance had improved.
'She does not seem to realise what wrong she has done,' Lieh Mak said, adding that the register was the only way to know how a doctor dispensed and prescribed dangerous drugs.
