SURGEON Susan Lim treated a patient linked to the Brunei palace for seven months in 2007. Her bill: $24.8 million. Singapore's Ministry of Health was upset when it learnt about the amount, and that led to it filing charges against the well-known doctor.
That was the claim her lawyers made in the Supreme Court on Tuesday. They also noted that Dr Lim later reduced the bill twice, although it has yet to be paid.
The bill is at the heart of a case between Dr Lim and the Singapore Medical Council (SMC).
She is fighting the SMC's decision to appoint a second disciplinary committee to investigate an accusation by the Health Ministry that she overcharged the patient.
On Tuesday was the first time that it came out into the open that the patient, who had breast cancer and later died, was linked to the Brunei royal household.
Additional story:
"DR SUSAN Lim, a surgeon in private practice, looked after a patient from Brunei for some years.
The woman, linked to the Brunei palace, died in August 2007. Her medical bills for that year have not been paid and were at the centre of a hearing by the Singapore Medical Council (SMC) over claims that Dr Lim had overcharged her patient.
The complainant against Dr Lim is not the patient's family, but Singapore's Ministry of Health.
An SMC disciplinary committee made up of three public sector doctors was set up to hear the case. The hearing was held over several periods last year.
In late May, one of the committee members, SingHealth group chief operating officer Wong Yue Sie, died from a stroke. He was replaced by KK Hospital paediatric surgeon Anette Jacobsen. She was sent the relevant documents, with more than 10,000 pages of transcript, about two weeks before the next hearing, scheduled for three days from July 29.
But barely an hour after the hearing began, the panel chairman said they had no further questions and had reached a decision. Dr Lim's lawyers protested that they had not been heard. While both parties had sent in written submissions, the three days were meant for them to present their case verbally.
The committee then agreed to hear them out. After a few hours, Dr Lim's lawyers asked the committee for the decision it had reached.
It refused to say. Dr Lim's lawyers then suggested it had pre-judged the case and should step down. The SMC's lawyers did not object. The committee stepped down without giving its verdict.
Two months later, in September, Dr Lim was told a second committee had been set up. Her lawyers are now asking Justice Philip Pillai to quash the SMC's move to set up a second committee. "
Taken from
The Straits Times 23-Feb-2011
By Salma Khalik, Health Correspondent
