Plea for Clemency for Dr Looi Kok Poh

It was reported in the Straits Times in September 2011 that Dr Looi Kok Poh, who runs a private clinic at Gleneagles Medical Centre, was sued by his patient, Mr Li Siu Lun, after an operation in 2006 in which Mr Li claimed that Dr Looi had performed an additional procedure on him without consent, and later had the consent form altered.

Parkway Holdings subsequently revoked Dr Looi's accreditation with the three hospitals it owned: Gleneagles, Mount Elizabeth and Parkway East. In addition, Dr Looi will be facing disciplinary action by the Singapore Medical Council for altering the consent form.

While amending a consent form is a serious ethical breach, we feel that there are mitigating factors that should be taken into account when the Council decides on the appropriate disciplinary action to be taken against Dr Looi.

We believe that Dr Looi has delivered a standard of care to his patient that at least equals the level expected of his profession. At every stage during the period of care he had always placed Mr Li's best interests first, and had kept the patient abreast of what was happening. He also informed the patient post-operatively that he had repaired an inadvertently severed nerve during the operation. It was unfortunate that an inadequate consent form was prepared by the nurse prior to surgery, necessitating an amendment post-operatively for which Dr Looi omitted to obtain the patient's countersignature.

Above all, Dr Looi has proven himself a man of sterling character over the years by giving generously of his time and effort to society through his pro bono and humanitarian medical work (see Addendum).

We therefore submit a plea to the Singapore Medical Council to exercise clemency in meting out disciplinary action when it convenes to hear Dr Looi's case. Please help support this cause by signing the petition below.

Yours sincerely,

Drs Leong Yan Hoi & Juliana Ho

ADDENDUM

We have attached a list of Dr Looi Kok Poh’s contributions to our society, that this may be a testimonial to the compassionate and civic-minded person he is.

Since 2007, Dr Looi has been working for Dr Tan Lai Yong and, more recently, Dr Loh Cheng in Kunming, Yunnan, where he performs surgery for hand and orthopaedic cases once and sometimes twice a year.

Apart from the first trip where he was alone, the regular trips comprise 2 surgical teams consisting of 2 hand surgeons, 2 anesthesiologist and 2 scrub nurses, operating on about 20 cases over a 3 day surgical period in the Stone Forest region in Yunnan.

The doctors would pay for their own as well as their nurses expenses. Surgical equipment and expendables were donated by the companies in Singapore.

Kok Poh's other humanitarian contributions include :

1. Humanitarian Medical Mission to Palawan with the Diocese of Singapore, 1992

2. Surgeon in Second Combat Surgical Hospital, Singapore Armed Forces, since 1994

3. Surgeon in medical mission to China, Medical Service International, 1996

4. Tzu Chi Medical Mission to Batam, 5–7 March 2004

5. Tsunami Relief in Aceh, 22–30 January 2005

6. Hand surgical mission to Jose R Reyes Memorial Medical Centre, 8–11 September 2005

7. Medical Mission to Kashmir earthquake, November 2005.