The Court of Three Judges has dismissed the final appeal of Dr Ian Lee Pheng Lip, a general practitioner who prescribed various unlicensed hormones to his patients.
He will now serve an 18-month suspension and pay S$50,000 in legal costs to the Singapore Medical Council (SMC).
The ruling, delivered on 8 July, means the convictions and sentence imposed by the SMC stand.
According to the Straits Times (ST), the court comprised Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon, Justice of the Court of Appeal Tay Yong Kwang, and Senior Judge Judith Prakash.
They found no basis to overturn the SMC’s decision, saying the sentence was appropriate for the 17 charges of professional misconduct brought against Dr Lee under the Medical Registration Act.
The case stems from concerns raised by the Ministry of Health (MOH) more than a decade ago. On 8 May 2014, the SMC’s Complaints Committee (CC) began investigating Dr Lee after MOH alerted them to his use of unapproved hormone therapies.
Among the substances prescribed were:
Source: celsopupo on Canva. Pic for illustrative purposes only.
Dr Lee’s clinic licence was not renewed after it expired on 16 March 2015. According to MOH, he had shown no intention of weaning his patients off the hormone treatments, and had prescribed testosterone without confirming deficiency or maintaining clinical records.
A second complaint was filed by the SMC on 30 April 2015, citing continued unapproved practices.
When invited to submit written explanations, Dr Lee maintained that he was entitled to prescribe these hormones and did not acknowledge wrongdoing.
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Dr Lee was then informed via letter on 12 February 2018 that the CC had ordered an inquiry to be held by a disciplinary tribunal.
SMC first issued Dr Lee with 21 charges on 22 April 2021.
After an inquiry and an oral hearing, the verdict was delivered on 16 January 2024.
The disciplinary tribunal had found Dr Lee guilty of 17 charges of professional misconduct and imposed the 18-month suspension.
On appeal, the Court of Three Judges agreed that the punishment was justified and ruled that the aggregate sentence “was not manifestly excessive”.
Dr Lee’s suspension will begin in two weeks, and he must bear the S$50,000, which is cost of the appeal.
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Featured image adapted from Ivan Samkov from Pexels and MS News. Pic on the left for illustrative purposes only.