Anger over ‘unacceptable’ punishment
Family question penalty for doctor whose blunder saw kidney patient die
The family of a patient with kidney failure who died after being given the wrong medication have called the punishment handed to the doctor responsible “too light and unacceptable”.
Dr Mo Ho-yuen, who runs a private clinic, was found guilty of professional misconduct by the city’s Medical Council in April, and was ordered to be removed from the doctor’s register for three months, suspended for 18 months. Mo was also required to complete several courses relating to the safe prescription of medication.
Speaking yesterday, the family of Ying Kwok-keung, 51, who died in November 2016, said they were disappointed with the sentence, and urged the watchdog to review its decision. Under the Medical Registration Ordinance, the council’s inquiry panel has until Friday to decide if it wants to review its sentence.
“I fail to see justice done from this sentence which is too light and unacceptable,” Lily Ying, the dead man’s sister, said. “This is not some case of negligence as the doctor had repeatedly given my brother the wrong medication.”
Ying’s wife, Fiona Lo, said she was “very disappointed by the sentence”.
“The doctor admitted his professional misconduct but he never apologised to us, not even giving us a phone call,” she said.
Mo declined to comment when contacted by the Post.
Ying, a dialysis patient suffering end-stage renal failure, visited Mo, his family doctor for 10 years, for treatment. Between October and November of 2016, the doctor prescribed high dosage of Colchicine on two occasions and Methotrexate two more times.
But the patient’s condition deteriorated and he visited Mo again for diarrhoea. The doctor then referred Ying to Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital in Chai Wan on November 14, 2016, without mentioning in the referral letter that he had prescribed Methotrexate. In hospital, Ying was later found to have deranged liver function and suffered multiple organ toxicity as a result of severe Colchicine and Methotrexate poisoning. He died four days later.
The council pointed out that both Colchicine and Methotrexate are non-dialysable and high dosage of the former and the prescription of the latter on a dialysis patient was “grossly improper and inappropriate”.
“The defendant has in our views by his conduct fallen below the standards expected of registered medical practitioners in Hong Kong,” the council’s inquiry panel said.
However, it emphasised that the primary purpose of a disciplinary order was not to “punish the defendant, but to protect the public from persons who are unfit to practise medicine and to maintain public confidence in the medical profession by upholding its high standards and good reputation”.
Tim Pang Hung-cheong, from the Society for Community Organisation, said the family was considering taking further action, such as launching a judicial review against the sentence, if the council opted not to review it.