FOREIGN maids have to be screened once every six months to ascertain that they are not pregnant or suffering from infectious diseases.
But one particular foreign maid didn't have to. Her employer, a doctor, signed the forms to say that she herself had done the screening - when she had not.
For the act of professional misconduct, Dr Michele Anne Lee Geok Hwa, a general practice locum, was censured by the Singapore Medical Council (SMC).
She had told the Controller of Work Permits that she had carried out the tests on her maid in December 2006. The Manpower Ministry complained to the SMC.
The medical check-up helps ensure that the maid does not carry infectious diseases such as the Aids virus (HIV) or tuberculosis (TB), which might harm them or the people they come into contact with.
This is especially important as maids work in homes and are in constant contact with children. A pregnancy test is also needed to screen against maids giving birth in Singapore, as this is against the work permit regulations.
This is the first time a doctor has been before the SMC's disciplinary committee for flouting her professional responsibilities in this way.
Previously, doctors have been censured for failing to detect that a foreign maid was pregnant when they neglected to carry out proper screening.
While Dr Lee was sorry for what she did, the committee described her act 'as a serious error which could not be condoned by the medical profession in view of the important role which medical practitioners play in screening foreign domestic workers'.
She was fined $3,000.
The SMC said in a statement yesterday that it had also disciplined a second doctor, for dispensing sleeping pills and other drugs too freely.
Dr Yip Chee Wei, 44, a general practitioner at Yip Family Clinic in Yishun, pleaded guilty to 15 charges of dispensing benzodiazepines, hypnotic drugs used to treat sleep and anxiety disorders and cough mixtures containing codeine.
Codeine, a drug in painkillers and cough and anti-diarrhoeal medicines, is used by drug addicts as a substitute for illegal dope.
Dr Yip's conviction brings to 30 the number of doctors who have prescribed drugs excessively.
A total of 14 doctors were disciplined from 2007 for breaching the guidelines for prescribing benzodiazepines implemented in 2002.
According to the guidelines, doctors are to prescribe the drug for short-term use and should routinely warn patients of the side-effects. The drug is contained in a range of sleeping pills, such as Valium and Diazepam.
Should there be continuous or repeat prescriptions, doctors should review the patients and have proper documentation for them.
A first-time offender, Dr Yip was suspended from practice for six months, censured and fined $5,000.
Both doctors had to give the SMC written pledges that they would not repeat the offence, on top of having to pay the expenses of the disciplinary hearings.
