Angry Doctor

Saturday, September 02, 2006

Ownership

I didn't know there was such a thing as the yearly The Forum Editor Writes column, but here it is.

Interestingly, the Forum Editor opens his column with some information about angry doc's topic of interest - complaint letters to the newspaper:


"READERS of the Forum may have noticed that for certain medical issues, a reply from the hospital in question is published next to the letter of complaint.

The first such letter was from Ms Lee Limin, 'Possible cancer? All she had was eczema', accompanied by the reply from Changi General Hospital, 'Medical management was appropriate' (ST; Oct 6, 2005).

This is done where there is an allegation of serious misdiagnosis or a delay in emergency treatment. We do this because such life-and-death matters are emotive issues and it is important that readers get both sides of the story at the same time.

In all such cases, the writer's permission is sought before the letter is forwarded to the hospital for a response."


Thank you, Mr Kong. This certainly is a step forward.

Labels:

posted by angry doc at 1:01 pm

4 Comments:

  • definitely. i always feel doctors get the short end of the stick all the time. but of course, there are also rogue doctors out there, so not everything is nice and easy peasy utopia. sigh.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, At September 03, 2006 3:29 pm  

  • I didn't read the editorial myself, but based on the gist of it, I still think the ST is far from CONSISTENT despite having such a policy in place.

    Anyone recall the post-SARS period, when the public's hero worship of local doctors had dissipated? There was an avalanche of complaints in the Forum Page, one of which wrongly accused the SNEC of losing medical records, when it was actually a private clinic.

    Some time after that boo-boo, a patient's relative wrote in about SGH A&E. After an extensive search failed to identify the patient, the complainant admitted that the incident occurred at TTSH, with no apology for the mistake.

    The ST can say whatever it wants, but unless I see these "rules" strictly adhered to, that's all it'll ever be: a whole lot of hot air.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, At September 05, 2006 8:35 pm  

  • Similar incident happened in Feb 2006, in fact, I think you yourself brought it up in your blog http://angrydr.blogspot.com/2006_02_01_angrydr_archive.html

    Nice highlights I might add.
    I notice a subsequent silence on the part of the complainant after the rebuttal.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, At September 06, 2006 11:28 pm  

  • Link didn't seem to come out right.
    Try this

    By Anonymous Anonymous, At September 06, 2006 11:30 pm  

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