Struck-off doctor loses latest fight to practise

A doctor who was twice refused the right to resume practice has lost another court bid to re-enter the profession.

Dr David Chow Siu-shek failed to overturn a Medical Council decision not to let him resume practice after a three-year suspension expired in 1998.

Dr Chow was jailed in November 1990 for two years after being convicted of plotting to defraud the School Medical Services Board of $18.7 million. He was struck off the register for three years in June 1995, and in September that year was fined $57,000 on 19 charges of failing to keep a proper register of dangerous drugs.

In February 1999, the Medical Council rejected his application to resume practice. Later, the Court of Final Appeal ruled unanimously that doctors struck off the medical register do not have an automatic right to practise at the end of their suspension.

In December last year, the council rejected Dr Chow's restoration application for a second time.

In a written judgment yesterday, Mr Justice Andrew Chung On-tak rejected the argument that the council's decision was unreasonable. The judge dismissed the complaint that it was wrong for the council to have taken Dr Chow's previous convictions into account.