MEDICAL Association doctors are considering giving themselves investigatory powers to seek out and penalise colleagues who feed patients' drug addictions.
Dangerous drugs guidelines being drafted by the Hong Kong Medical Association will provide the tools for an unprecedented hunt for doctors who sell drugs improperly.
Committee members have tentatively agreed to set up a permanent investigations committee, draw up legislation if necessary, establish an expert panel to give evidence in court and penalise doctors who breach the guidelines.
Association spokesman Dr So Kai-ming said the decisions were still on the drawing board and invited contributions to the discussions.
'The implications are tremendous, because for the first time the medical profession will be taking investigatory action,' Dr So said.
'We think there should be a committee to look into suspected doctors' records.' Such a committee could conduct searches barred to the regulatory Medical Council, which acts on patients' complaints to charge, judge and either discipline or clear doctors accused of professional misconduct.
Most of its cases involve selling sick leave certificates, working in association with beauty parlours or failing to keep records of dangerous drugs - often a euphemism for selling addictive drugs.
