The Court of Final Appeal has rejected specialist surgeon Chu Kin-wah’s application for permission to pursue a final appeal against his professional misconduct conviction. Written reasons published on 1 September 2026 leave in place the Medical Council’s order removing him from the medical register for a total of six months.
The case arose from an operation Chu performed in October 2015, after which a fist-sized piece of surgical gauze remained inside the patient’s abdomen. The patient continued to suffer abdominal pain and eventually had the gauze removed during another operation performed by other doctors.
The Medical Council found Chu guilty of two counts of professional misconduct and imposed a combined six-month removal from the register.
Chu challenged the decision in the Court of Appeal, but his appeal was rejected in early 2026. He later applied for permission to take the case to the Court of Final Appeal, with that application dismissed after a hearing in August.
In his submissions, Chu argued that the disciplinary inquiry should have called other doctors as witnesses. He also referred to evidence that other doctors had not questioned his treatment, and argued that the Bolam test had been wrongly applied in a case involving an important legal issue concerning the public interest.
The Court of Final Appeal said the inquiry panel had considered the relevant evidence and was entitled to decide how much weight to give each piece of evidence. It said the panel was not obliged to call other doctors as witnesses and found no error of law or fact in its conclusions.
The court also said Chu’s grounds for seeking permission to appeal were the same as those raised before the Court of Appeal, which had already dealt with them in detail. It therefore refused permission for a final appeal, leaving the disciplinary sanction in place.