THE Singapore Medical Council (SMC) agrees that a doctor's first and overriding responsibility is to patients ('Injured workers get little time to recuperate' by Mr Tan Thian Huat, Feb 14; and 'Ensure rest for injured workers' by the Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics and Transient Workers Count Too, Forum Online, Feb 22).
Doctors must treat patients appropriately and do everything necessary to ensure that patients have the best chance of good recovery from their illnesses or injuries.
Doctors must ensure that patients do not come to harm from inadequate treatment. This includes providing appropriate and sufficient medical leave or certification of limitation of duties as medically necessary.
The SMC would like to remind all doctors that their responsibility to their patients is not modified, and must not be compromised, by who they themselves are employed or contracted by, or by who happens to be the payer of the medical services they provide.
Their primary responsibility is always to patients.
The obligations of doctors towards their patients are spelt out in the SMC's Ethical Code and Ethical Guidelines.
The SMC expects all registered medical practitioners to adhere to these ethical standards and wishes to remind doctors that serious disregard of or persistent failure to meet these standards can potentially lead to harm to patients or bring disrepute to the profession, and consequently, may lead to disciplinary proceedings when such breaches come to SMC's attention.
Ms Tan Fay-Ann
Assistant Manager,
Corporate Communications
Singapore Medical Council