DOCTORS' REFUSAL TO AID INJURED GIRL (Steps to prevent recurrences)

Mr Yeo Toon Chia asked the Minister for Health, in regard to the recent incident in which some doctors refused to go to the aid of an injured girl whose fingers were caught in a grinder, whether his Ministry intends to take action against the four doctors, and what steps are being taken to prevent recurrences of such a nature.

Dr Toh Chin Chye: Mr Speaker, a letter of complaint against the four doctors has been submitted to me and I have forwarded it to the Singapore Medical Council to investigate. The Council will meet at the end of August to discuss this case.

I ought to add that it is a sad episode in the history of the medical profession and it is not a good prognosis to Singapore's efforts in building civic consciousness among the population. As far as I can gather, the reason why the four doctors did not go to the aid of the girl whose hand was caught in a potato grinder was that they had patients in their clinics when, in actual fact, only one had some patients in his clinic while the other three had very few patients. But the major reason given was that they were not surgeons. I would have thought that it is human instinct to go to the assistance of any other human being in distress.

Let us take the case of the petroleum tanker which exploded in a camping site in Spain. The people who went to the rescue of the victims were not doctors or surgeons. They were just ordinary tourists and civilians and they did their best to assist the injured so that they could be taken to the hospitals. In the case of the Sembawang incident, the people from the Fire Brigade were there. They were not doctors but they had to saw the machine to release the girl's hand so that she could be taken to the hospital. The ambulance nurses were there but unfortunately they were not allowed to inject morphine into the girl who was in a state of shock.

I am happy to say that the reorganisation of the Fire Brigade, alerting the Accident and Emergency Departments, has proved that our policies have been operating in the right direction. Rightly, the A & E Departments should be used for what they are. I am not saying that a sole incident like this should be justification for the imposition of a $10 charge on people using the A & E Departments, but it certainly does help to release doctors from the A & E Departments to assist cases like this.