S’pore Anaesthetist Walks Out During Operation To Answer Phone Calls, Suspended For 2.5 Years

Anaesthetist Gets 2.5 Year-Suspension For Walking Out During Operation To Answer Phone

An anaesthetist at Gleneagles Hospital has been suspended for 2.5 years after walking out of an operation multiple times to take phone calls.

During the surgery, the patient suffered a blood clot complication, to which the anaesthetist did not respond quickly enough due to his repeated absences.

While doctors were able to resuscitate the patient at the time, the latter passed away the next day.

As such, it was concluded that the anaesthetist’s negligence lowered the patient’s chances of surviving the blood clot.

Anaesthetist failed to act quickly while patient suffered operation complications

According to an announcement by the Singapore Medical Council (SMC) on Tuesday (10 Jan), the surgery took place in Sep 2016.

The patient had been put under anaesthesia for bone surgery but suffered a blood clot that blocked oxygen from his lungs.

During this time, the anaesthetist, Dr Islam Md Towfique, did not act quickly enough to supply more oxygen to the patient’s blood.

Consequently, the patient’s SpO2 (percentage of how much oxygen is present in one’s blood) fell into the 70s and 80s.

For comparison, a healthy blood oxygen level usually ranges between 96% and 99%.

While SMC’s disciplinary tribunal agreed that the patient’s chances of surviving the blood clot were low, Dr Islam’s delayed actions might have worsened them.

Anaesthetist claims walking out during operation is common practice

The announcement states that Dr Islam argued it is common practice among anaesthetists to leave the operating theatre for short periods of time.

Because of this, it “ought to be viewed as less blameworthy”.

However, Dr Islam was the sole attending anaesthetist for the operation, with only a nurse from the anaesthetic unit to assist him.

As such, it was mandatory for him to be constantly present while the patient was under sedation.

Furthermore, investigations found that Dr Islam had left the patient for as long as nine minutes at a time.

The anaesthetist also contended that the harm caused by his behaviour was “minimal”, citing the patient’s already low chances of surviving the blood clot.

The tribunal rejected this as well, stating that such misconduct significantly harms public confidence in the medical profession.

Furthermore, the tribunal found that Dr Islam’s actions were driven by financial gain.

This is because he was on the phone with patients who wanted to know when they could come for treatment.

Anaesthetist has continued to accept calls during operations

In addition, the announcement revealed that Dr Islam continues to walk out of operations for phone calls “till this day”.

While he asked for a reduction of his suspension from 36 to 12 months, the tribunal rejected his request on those grounds.

Instead, it reduced his sentence by one-sixth to give him a 30-month, or 2.5-year suspension instead.

Prior to the decision, Gleneagles Hospital had already suspended Dr Islam for six months in 2017.

He will also have to foot the bill for the proceedings, including lawyer fees for SMC, and refrain from walking out of operations again.

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Featured image adapted from Olga Kononenko on Unsplash, for illustration purposes only.