The first duty of doctors is to care for their patients, not to look after their own wallets. That is well understood by most of our doctors. Sadly, though, when doctors present their bills, there are times when it seems that has been forgotten.
Private doctors should, at the very least, be keeping up appearances, by ensuring there is transparency when it comes to patients' bills. It is disappointing, therefore, to see the head of the Medical Association - which represents doctors' interests - objecting to a new Medical Council directive to separate laboratory charges from doctor fees. In a letter sent to all private doctors, the medical watchdog says they should state their own charges separately from the fees they collect for laboratories in receipts given to patients. This is to avoid overcharging and disguising a doctor's own fee by lumping it with that for a laboratory.
What can be so objectionable about that? And who could object to making charges more transparent? Association president Dr Tse Hung-hing thinks the council has no business interfering in what he calls the commercial behaviour of doctors. Dr Tse also objects to the letter being sent without reference to the council's ethics committee, of which he is chairman. He says the new requirement could not be included in the doctors' code of conduct without an amendment.
He is wrong. When there is predatory or unfair charging, the council has a duty to interfere precisely because it is commercial behaviour. As for his procedural objection, it is irrelevant. The council was responding to a Court of Appeal decision last week to reject an appeal by Dr Ip Wing-kin against the council's disciplinary action against him. The council had earlier found Ip guilty of professional misconduct by over-charging an elderly patient for laboratory tests. The patient, 79, was asked to pay HK$4,180 for tests that laboratories conducted for HK$1,575 in 2006.
Since the council's judgment was upheld by the court, it should be effective without the need to amend the code. But even without the force of law, the council is only asking doctors to do the right thing and avoid hidden charges. Dr Tse should ask all doctors to support it.
