A top surgeon who was quoted in a magazine as saying the medical system was so bad he would be afraid to have an operation was summoned to the Medical Council yesterday.
Queen Mary Hospital cardiologist and University of Hong Kong associate professor David Ho Sai-wah faced a charge of professional misconduct over a story published in Next magazine in January last year.
The story quoted him as being critical of the health-care system and its doctors, whom he reportedly said had the attitude towards patients that Western doctors displayed in the 1960s.
'If something happened to me one day and I needed surgical treatment, I'd choose to go back to Australia or North America,' he was quoted as saying.
'Honestly speaking, if I'm admitted to hospital today, I'll be scared.' Yesterday he denied ever saying that, and said other comments were made in casual conversation on the understanding they would not be published.
It is an offence for doctors to claim superiority over colleagues or criticise the work of other doctors.