Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal on 25 August 2026 rejected surgeon Chu Kin-wah’s application for permission to appeal against his six-month removal from the medical register. The court’s reasons have been reserved.
The case arose from an operation Chu performed on a patient in 2015. One report described it as surgery to close a colostomy, while another said it took place in October that year. Surgical gauze was left inside the patient’s abdomen after the procedure.
The patient continued to suffer abdominal pain. The disciplinary case found that Chu had failed to arrange appropriate follow-up or investigate the cause. The patient later consulted other doctors, who found and removed a piece of surgical gauze described as about the size of a fist.
The Medical Council subsequently found Chu guilty of two counts of professional misconduct and ordered that he be removed from the medical register for six months. His earlier appeal to the Court of Appeal was dismissed, with the court reportedly finding that he had not shown a clear error in the council’s findings of fact.
In seeking permission to take the case to the top court, Chu’s side argued that the medical records showed the patient had not been in danger. It also questioned whether the Medical Council had sufficiently considered evidence favourable to Chu. Those were the applicant’s submissions, rather than findings established by the court.
The application was heard by a panel comprising two permanent judges and one non-permanent judge. The detailed legal basis for the decision remains outstanding until the Court of Final Appeal publishes its reasons.