SINGAPORE - Singapore does not want to go the way of the United States where a"significant fraction of healthcare costs goes towards medical indemnity insurance", said Health Minister Gan Kim Yong.
He was replying to queries from Dr Chia Shi-Lu and Dr Lim Wee Kiak who asked for clear guidelines to help doctors who were concerned by two recent judgments by the Singapore Medical Council's disciplinary tribunals. The two disciplinary cases resulted in one doctor being fined $100,000 for not telling his patient of possible side effects of a common injection, and the other doctor fined $50,000 for releasing sensitive information about a patient without verifying whether the person the information was given to was indeed the patient's husband.
He told Parliament that the ministry has set up a workgroup to provide doctors with guidance"on the what, where and how in taking informed consent" so doctors will not need to second guess what is needed. There must be sufficient flexibility in such guidance so that patient interests are best served.