Alex Lam Chi-yau announced on 4 November that he had submitted his resignation as an outside member of The Medical Council of Hong Kong so he could represent, without charge, the father of an eight-year-old girl at her inquest. The girl died in March 2024.
Lam said some Council members considered it inappropriate for him to serve both as a member and as the family’s lawyer; he had never handled or accessed documents or other information about the girl’s case or the doctors’ complaints, and did not want his role to affect the Council’s work.
The girl underwent surgery at Queen Mary Hospital in 2020 and entered a vegetative state. Her family complained to the Council about three doctors in 2021.
The Council had told the family in March 2026 that a disciplinary inquiry into a complaint against one doctor was scheduled for 27 October. It postponed the inquiry shortly before it was due to begin, saying the inquest would help it examine the case more fully.
Lam criticised the Council’s change of plan, saying its handling had failed to deliver justice. A legislator and a community organisation officer said a member who had not sat on the case’s investigation or inquiry panels would not know its details. The officer said declaring an interest and stepping aside from relevant discussions could be sufficient.
The coroner’s court scheduled a closed pre-inquest review for 20 November.