About a decade ago, a young relative of Mr Zhulkarnain Abdul Rahim (Chua Chu Kang GRC) suffered complications after surgery and died in hospital.
Her distraught parents, who had envisioned attending her graduation from university one day, were at a loss and sought an explanation. They filed a complaint against the hospital and attending doctors, he recounted in Parliament yesterday.
The investigation process took more than two years and, eventually, it was found there was no wrongdoing or negligence by the doctors. "Although there was finality to the process, the sheer duration did not give the family any closure nor heal any wounds," he said.
Mr Zhulkarnain was among 11 MPs who spoke at the debate on the Medical Registration (Amendment) Bill and Civil Law (Amendment) Bill, both of which were later passed.
Some MPs, including Dr Tan Wu Meng (Jurong GRC) and Mr Ang Wei Neng (West Coast GRC), spoke in personal terms of their relatives and residents. But all welcomed the changes, highlighting the faster process in resolving complaints and greater clarity for doctors on what they need to tell patients for informed decisions.
Mr Zhulkarnain said the shortened investigation process is important as it allows complainants to get closure earlier.
Dr Tan, who is a medical doctor and whose father was a cancer patient, agreed. He noted that delayed justice is unfair to both patients and their families, who may have to wait many years for an outcome. It is also unfair to an accused person.
At least three medical doctors spoke on the changes, including Senior Minister of State for Health Koh Poh Koon.
He welcomed the move to take into account the professional opinions of peers in setting out the new statutory test of a healthcare professional's duty in giving medical advice to a patient. This is a provision in the Civil Law (Amendment) Bill.
Speaking from his own experience, he said there are occasions where a doctor may need to take some professional risk by withholding information from a patient, who may be in denial about his condition, in order to convince him to undergo life-saving surgery.
For example, a cancer patient's children may ask a doctor not to tell their parent that he has cancer, as they know he will refuse treatment.
In such a situation, a doctor may have to spend time talking to the family as well, to help them understand the context in which the decision has to be made and why surgery is necessary, he added.
Most of the MPs, including Dr Lim Wee Kiak (Sembawang GRC), said there should be adequate resources and manpower allocated to committees in charge of disciplinary proceedings.
In response, Second Minister for Law Edwin Tong said grants have been given to the Singapore Medical Council to set up the new mechanisms and redeploy resources.
Mr Pritam Singh (Aljunied GRC) and Mr Louis Ng (Nee Soon GRC) said doctors with limited consultation time for patients, owing to a heavy workload, may struggle to comply with the new statutory test in the Civil Law Act.
Mr Tong assured MPs that the Ministry of Health takes seriously the issue of additional workload potentially undermining the quality of care.
"We may have to find ways to put better resources in public hospitals or polyclinics, but... we must first focus on what is good for the patient and doctor in that relationship."
Anecdotal evidence, he added, does not indicate to him that the new test will increase a doctor's consultation time.
Still, the Government will examine if there are systemic issues that may be barriers to the medical profession adapting to the legislative changes, he added.
