The Medical Council of Hong Kong inquiry panel found a doctor guilty of professional misconduct over retrospective sick-leave certificates totalling 207 days. It ordered his removal from the general-practitioner register for six months, but suspended the order for 24 months.
The patient, a taxi driver, was injured in a collision with a private car in September 2021. He received five days’ sick leave from Ruttonjee Hospital and later one day from Prince of Wales Hospital. He began weekly physiotherapy at Prince of Wales Hospital in November and reportedly could not sit for more than two hours.
He first attended the doctor’s clinic on 19 March 2022, about six months after the collision. The doctor initially planned to grant 12 days’ leave, but agreed to the patient’s request to backdate it to the day of the crash, covering the period to 31 March 2022. He said he had reviewed the patient’s public-hospital records and acted out of sympathy, also taking account of the pandemic.
After a return visit on 3 May, the doctor issued a second certificate covering 1 April to 20 May.
The panel found the doctor had no reasonable or proper grounds to certify leave for 25 September 2021 to 18 March 2022, before the patient became his patient. It also found that sympathy was not a proper ground for the later certificate’s coverage of 1 April to 2 May. Sick-leave certificates should be issued only after an appropriate medical assessment of the patient.