Misconduct earns doctor a reprimand

A private doctor has been reprimanded for recommending a skin cream in his newspaper columns without disclosing his connection to the product's distributor.

Stephen Chow Heung-wing, who has a clinic in Shamshuipo, was found guilty of professional misconduct by the Medical Council at a hearing yesterday.

Chow, who wrote a daily column called Dr Chow's Mailbox for Apple Daily, recommended to readers a skin cream called MP17 in nine articles published between January and July 1999.

The hearing was told that at that time Chow was a consultant to the distributor, Winsor Hong Kong Limited.

Council chairman Lee Kin-hung said: 'Issue has been taken as to whether he was a consultant of Winsor. The council finds that he was such a consultant.'

Defence counsel Ambrose Ho, in mitigation, said of the 500 columns Chow wrote, only nine breached the professional code.