 Print Article
|
It also wants the maximum fine meted out to doctors by the Singapore Medical Council (SMC) increased, from $10,000 to $100,000, and a three-year cap on restrictions to a doctor's practice lifted.
These measures were contained in proposals to amend the Medical Registration Act, and come against a backdrop of rising complaints against doctors and a changing medical landscape in the past few years.
For half of the 138 complaints heard last year, it took eight months before patients could get a full answer to their complaints against their doctors.
MOH wants to increase this to 75 per cent of total complaints to be heard within the same period.
This will shorten the waiting period for both patients and doctors. In addition, it is exploring if remedial measures, such as counselling, can be taken instead of, or as well as, disciplinary action against doctors.
These and other recommended changes to the Act are intended to take in how the practice of medicine is changing in Singapore today, said Professor K. Satku, MOH director of Medical Services.
For instance, one amendment will recognise new sub-specialities like palliative care, essential in an ageing population with a growing pool of the sick and elderly.
The 138 complaints the SMC dealt with last year ranged from misdiagnosis and delay of treatment to negligence and inappropriate treatment. This is up from 84 complaints received in 2004.
They first go through a complaints committee, which either issues warnings or letters of advice to the doctors or refers complaints to a disciplinary committee.
Ten per cent of cases are referred to the disciplinary committee on average a year. The ministry hopes to reduce this to 5 per cent by expanding the powers of the complaints committee.
This should include appointing officers to investigate complaints so that those without merit can be dealt with quickly and serious complaints established in greater detail.
The committee should also be able to refer cases against doctors for outside conciliation or mediation or require them to go through further training or receive counselling.
If the doctor admits responsibility, it can also curtail his practice, or suspend or remove him from the medical register without requiring him to face a disciplinary hearing, the MOH suggested.
These moves will shorten patients' waiting time for a complaint to be heard.
The deputy medical director of Healthway Medical, Dr Vincent Chia, said the nature of patients' complaints has shifted from malpractice a few years ago towards customer service complaints.
This means a lot of the complaints can be dealt with more easily, he said.
A doctor in private practice, who declined to be named, knows first-hand what it is like to be kept waiting for the outcome of investigations. He recalled how a patient complained to SMC in 2007 that he had not clearly explained the use of medication he had prescribed. It took up to six months for the complaints committee to deal with the case, which was eventually dismissed after investigations.
'I never had a shadow of doubt on the way I handled the patient but the wait just caused a lot of grief,' he said.
One proposed change that would benefit patients unhappy with SMC verdicts: They can appeal to the High Court if they are dissatisfied with decisions made by the council's disciplinary arm. This power of appeal is now limited to the doctor, if he feels he has been unjustly penalised.
Currently, patients can also appeal to the Health Minister if they are not satisfied with the decision of the complaints committee, under certain circumstances.
Said Prof Satku: 'We've had occasions when the complainants have appealed and asked why this is happening and I think it's unfair...and there is no recourse for the complainants to take it further.'
MOH will be conducting a six-week public consultation to obtain feedback on the proposed amendments to the Medical Registration Act.
See Singapore
