Obstetrician Michael Rogers cleared of misconduct

A private obstetrician has been cleared of professional misconduct after the medical watchdog found insufficient proof that he performed an invasive diagnostic procedure in 2011 on a woman without proper explanation.

It was disputable if Dr Michael Rogers had explained the options fully and properly to patient Poon Wing before conducting a laparoscopy to check her abdominal organs, the Medical Council's temporary chairwoman Professor Felice Lieh Mak said.

However, the council was not satisfied with the evidence presented by the legal officer, who bore the burden of proof, Lieh Mak said.

Poon had lodged the complaint after another doctor said the risky procedure might not have been needed and that, had she been with child, it could have terminated a normal pregnancy.

But her signing of a consent form "seems to contradict the patient's evidence that no alternative treatment option was explained to her", she noted.

"We cannot speculate on how much information the defendant had given to her on options for conservative treatment," Lieh Mak said yesterday.