Doctor suspended after unlawfully accessing info on SGH database
The Singapore Medical Council (SMC) has revived a case it previously dismissed with a letter of advice and suspended plastic surgeon Leo Kah Woon for three months.
Now in private practice, Dr Leo, 44, used his position as a doctor at Singapore General Hospital (SGH) in 2012 to access information in the hospital's database on a man he suspected was having an affair with his wife, as well as information on the man's wife.
He alerted the man's wife to the suspected affair.
The man complained to the SMC, which decided no formal inquiry was needed, but sent a letter of advice to Dr Leo in 2014.
However, Dr Leo was found guilty by the courts in 2017 and fined $13,000 for unlawfully accessing data at SGH and installing a spyware program on his laptop to intercept data belonging to his wife.
Following the court judgment in February 2017, the SMC sent the case to a disciplinary tribunal.
The tribunal found him guilty last December and suspended him for three months, in a decision released this week.
The tribunal said in its grounds of decision: "While we do not expect all doctors to be the epitome of virtue, we should expect the conduct of doctors, professionally and privately, to exceed the standards expected of ordinary citizens."
It also agreed with the SMC that the cyber attack on the SingHealth database that made the headlines last year was "a timely reminder to everyone to treat cyber security with the utmost seriousness".
Aside from being suspended for three months, Dr Leo was censured and has to give a written undertaking not to repeat the offence. He also has to pay the cost of the proceedings.
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