Court upholds decision against GP who implied he was plastic surgeon
By
Selina Lum
A GENERAL practitioner who embellished his qualifications to give the impression that he was a specialist in cosmetic surgery has been handed a six-month suspension from practice.
On Wednesday, a three-judge court upheld the decision by the Singapore Medical Council (SMC) against Dr Zubin Firdos Medora, which was first handed down in February.
The 36-year-old doctor had gone to court to appeal against the suspension, which followed his pleading guilty to two charges of professional misconduct at a disciplinary hearing.
The case arose from a July 2006 complaint filed by a group of plastic surgeons that he had made misleading statements to present himself as a trained and accredited plastic surgeon.
Dr Medora, who got his degree from Britain in 1998 and his master's here in 2003, practised at two clinics, the Medora Centre for Aesthetic Medicine at Camden Medical Centre, and Plastic Surgery & Hair Clinic at Delfi Orchard.
On the clinics' website, he weaved in information to create the impression that he was well-trained in the field. He claimed to have won a scholarship to the prestigious Johns Hopkins University in the United States, when all he did there was a four- week undergraduate exchange programme.
On Wednesday, his lawyer Thio Shen Yi described the suspension as disproportionately harsh, and said the SMC had 'overestimated the reach of the Internet'.
But Senior Counsel Tan Chee Meng, acting for the SMC, argued that Dr Medora had mixed and matched lies with facts to create a semblance of credibility. He said: 'This is no oversight but a blatant disregard of the truth with intent to mislead.'
When contacted, Dr Medora said he was disappointed with the decision and added: 'I accept that I made some mistakes in my enthusiasm to build my practice...While these were honest mistakes, I have accepted responsibility.'
Declaring patient well-being as his highest priority, he said: 'I have never compromised this.'
