Hong Kong hospital medic has misconduct conviction overturned

A public doctor convicted of misconduct for prescribing medicine to his parents and son without them attending his clinic won an appeal yesterday after the court decided it did not warrant criminal prosecution.

Michael Ho Hung-kwan, 48, had in 2011 been sentenced in Kowloon City Court to 200 hours of community service for sending medicine - including Panadol and Vaseline - worth HK$247 to his parents in Australia and providing it to his son, who did not attend the clinic.

Ho was employed by the Hospital Authority and worked at the outpatient clinic in the Central Kowloon Health Centre at the time. His parents were in Australia, and his son was attending kindergarten in Hong Kong at the time of the supposed consultations - between June 2007 and November 2008. On each occasion, Ho wrote the consultation summaries and prescribed medicines on the computer system, then obtained the prescriptions.

The trial heard Ho diagnosed his parents over the telephone, while his son was diagnosed at home. In allowing the appeal, the five-judge panel before the Court of Final Appeal noted that the Hospital Authority had no express rule that a doctor must diagnose patients in a clinic.

Mr Justice Patrick Chan Siu-oi wrote in the judgment handed down yesterday that there was no challenge to the fact Ho had gone through the normal procedure with the intention of obtaining medicine for his relatives without them attending the clinic.

"Some might consider [attending the clinic] unnecessary, bearing in mind the close relationship between them," the judge said. "After all, the prescription was indeed given by a doctor of the clinic and the appellant paid the requisite fee."

The judge also noted that it had not been proven that Ho's action had deprived the public of medical services. Chan said the only favour the doctor's relatives had obtained was that they did not have to attend the clinic.

"I do not believe that the integrity of the clinic's outpatient service system would be seriously tarnished by what the appellant has done," Chan said.

The judge said the prosecution had not proved that Ho's misconduct was so serious that it required criminal sanction.

"One can always say that the appellant could have made it clear in the records kept on the computer that his family members did not personally attend," Chan said.

The judge suggested Ho could have dealt with his family members' cases after he had finished his usual daily quota for the public to avoid affecting the interests of other patients.

Ho's conviction was quashed by the top court yesterday following his unsuccessful appeal in the Court of First Instance earlier.

"At the end of the day, the judicial system in Hong Kong is just," Ho said yesterday. It was common for medical officers to get medicine for their families without conducting the diagnosis at the clinic, he added.

A health department spokesman said Ho had been suspended from duty and it would study the judgment to decide whether further action was needed.