The court judgment earlier this month against Dr Julian Ong Kian Peng, who claimed he had been defamed, has raised some worrying facts - and points to the failure of the doctors' professional watchdog body, the Singapore Medical Council (SMC), to protect patients in a timely manner.

Dr Ong, a surgeon in private practice, had sued the woman for defaming him in her complaint to the SMC against Dr Chan Herng Nieng, a psychiatrist, who had been both her doctor and lover.