Hospital Authority complaints committee accused of disrespect and playing God

More than 1,500 public doctors plan to boycott the Hospital Authority's top complaints handling body, arguing it is disrespectful to their profession, makes biased judgments and has some members who play God.

The Public Doctors' Association is seeking legal advice to see whether doctors can refuse to attend the hearings of the Public Complaints Committee, the nine members of which are appointed by the authority, with some on the authority's board. The committee's decision is final within the authority and there is no channel for medical staff to appeal.

Association president Dr Lai Kang-yiu said yesterday that doctors were furious about the damage they felt the committee was doing to their image. If doctors could not avoid a legal obligation to attend hearings, the association would appeal to its 1,500 members to make a 'silent protest'.

'We will appeal to our members not to say a word during the hearing; everything has to be black and white.

'If the committee members want to get information from us, they have to put down written questions; there will be no verbal answers any more,' said Dr Lai. 'We are very angry, I don't think we need to talk. We will stay on the silent protest until there is an improvement. We are not saying the system is wrong, but some individual members are playing God.'

In the latest dispute, the committee has substantiated a complaint against North District Hospital and found hospital chief Dr Lai King-kwong had 'over-protected' his staff.

The committee ruled that the hospital failed to provide prompt treatment for a patient suffering from an acute heart condition. The patient died two days after admission. The committee also criticised the lack of manpower at the hospital, which has only one cardiologist.