We successfully defended a doctor in a Medical Council disciplinary inquiry against two charges of professional misconduct.

The doctor was charged for failing to explain the nature of a box of cream to the complainant and to label the box of cream appropriately. This is remarkably the first time a doctor in Hong Kong is charged for professional misconduct in prescribing a non-medicine (the box of cream in the present case). These unprecedented charges were tested by our complex legal arguments on the application of the Code of Professional Conduct of the Medical Council to non-medicines. This is also a rare case where conflicting factual disputes were involved in a Medical Council inquiry, as the doctor defended that the box of cream in question had not been prescribed by him to the complainant. In acquitting the doctor for both counts, the Council accepted the defence’s submissions that paragraph 9 of the Code of Professional Conduct of the Medical Council does not apply to non-medicines, and that the legal officer failed to prove that the box of cream in question was in fact a medicine prescribed by the doctor.

The full acquittal is an impressive result, particularly in view of the extremely high conviction rate (93% in average from 2005 to 2015) of disciplinary proceedings with the Medical Council. This case is handled by our Litigation Partner Mr. Roy Leung, assisted by our Litigation Associate Mr. Mathew Liu.