Dangerous-drugs breach is doctor's fifth offence
A Medical Council disciplinary hearing yesterday punished a doctor with four previous disciplinary breaches for failing to register dangerous drugs or to report to the council a court conviction for the offence.
Last year Dr Siu Ting-wing, 56, was convicted in Eastern Court of failing to keep a register of dangerous drugs and was fined HK$30,000.
He failed to report his conviction to the council, which is required.
For the failure to keep the record, Siu's name will be removed from the register for three months, during which time he will not be able to practise. He will be reprimanded by the council for not reporting the case.
Sui was working for medical centre Healthy Rich when pharmacists from the Department of Health asked him for the register of dangerous drugs at his clinic in North Point.
He did not have the register. No dangerous drugs were found at the scene, but later it was discovered that he had ordered 54,000 capsules or tablets from drug suppliers in two years. At the Eastern Court hearing he said the register was at the headquarters of the medical centre.
Jonathan Kwan, representing Siu, who was absent from the inquiry, said it was a technical breach rather than an intended one, but the council said some features in the registers were 'questionable' and 'extremely unusual'. For example, Siu once dispensed 1,440 tablets to a patient in one go, for the whole year.
Professor Grace Tang, chairing the inquiry, said the council would treat a breach of the Dangerous Drugs Regulations seriously to ensure 'the risk of those drugs falling into the wrong hands is minimised'.
This is Siu's fifth disciplinary offence in seven years.
Siu, a doctor for 27 years, was previously the subject of a complaint from a patient he was treating for obesity, who later became suicidal in 2008, for failing to properly label the prescribed drugs and to monitor the side effects, when he was working for th beauty centre Be a Lady. The complaint was upheld and he was struck off the register for 10 months. The case is under appeal.
He also received a warning letter from the council for placing advertisements for his service in 2003.
The Dangerous Drugs Regulations require every medical practitioner to keep a register of each dangerous drug obtained in the past two years, and the register has to be kept at the premises. Failure to comply is a criminal offence punishable by a maximum fine of HK$450,000 and three years' jail. The Medical Council also requires doctors who have been convicted in or outside Hong Kong to report to the council within 28 days of being convicted. Failure to do so will result in disciplinary action.
