SINGAPORE: Two traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) practitioners have had their registrations suspended after one of their patients was hospitalised for a month with third degree burns.
The TCM Practitioners Board said on Friday (Jan 31) that the female patient filed a complaint against Mr Joseph Yap Kwok Ann and Madam Xia RongRong on Oct 20, 2016.
AdvertisementAdvertisementThe husband and wife pair practised at Annie Tiang TCM located at The Odeon Katong.
The patient alleged that Mr Yap had inserted absorbable surgical threads into various parts of her body to treat her knee, neck and back pain sometime in August and September 2014 without advising her of the benefits, risks and possible complications.
According to the patient, Mr Yap said that the inserted surgical threads would dissolve in one to two days. However, the surgical threads inserted in her neck did not dissolve, resulting in pain and discomfort in her neck area.
[h=3]READ: TCM practitioner fined, suspended after treating patient remotely for 3 years[/h] AdvertisementAdvertisementThe 1cm threads were eventually removed from the patient’s neck several months later after she sought treatment from an orthopaedic surgeon.
Mr Yap then arranged for his wife, Madam Xia, to provide continued TCM care to the patient while he was away on an overseas trip.
The patient said in her complaint that Madam Xia had failed to exercise "due responsibility and appropriate care" in the administration of a TCM moxibustion treatment on Sep 4, 2014, resulting in third degree burns on her knees.
The TCM Practitioners Board said Madam Xia had instructed her former clinic assistant to perform the moxibustion treatment on the patient instead of administering the treatment herself. Thereafter, she did not monitor or supervise the work of her former assistant closely.
"EXTREME PAIN" AND BLISTERS
The patient repeatedly complained of “extreme pain” during the treatment, but she was asked to bear the pain and was told that the pain would subside shortly after the treatment.
However, the pain persisted even after the patient returned home, the board said.
When blisters started to form on her knees, the patient’s family called Madam Xia to seek advice but was told that such symptoms were “normal side effects” of the treatment and that the pain would subside without any need for medical attention.
[h=3]READ: TCM practitioner suspended, fined after patient forced to have leg amputated from knee down[/h]The next day, the patient returned to see Madam Xia for her blisters and was told that the appearance of blisters was a “positive sign of toxins being expelled from her body”.
The board said the patient’s blisters did not recover and that Mr Yap and Madam Xia were notified of this. Both TCM practitioners continued to maintain that these symptoms were normal and that healing would take time.
The patient subsequently sought medical treatment on Sep 15, 2014 and was hospitalised four days later for about one month.
The patient also had to undergo surgery for skin grafting at the hospital, where doctors confirmed she suffered from third degree burns caused by the moxibustion treatment.
TREATMENT WAS “INAPPROPRIATELY DELEGATED”
An investigation committee convened by the TCM Practitioners Board found that Mr Yap’s prescription and administration of thread insertion treatment was not an appropriate or generally accepted method of TCM treatment.
[h=3]READ: TCM practitioner suspended, fined after man complains treatments caused his nose 'to deviate'[/h]Also, following the development of blisters and burns on the patient’s legs, Mr Yap did not refer her to a registered medical practitioner for treatment.
The committee said that Mr Yap had also made unsolicited visits to see the patient while she was hospitalised, during which point he had not respected her privacy and her choice of not receiving further treatment or advice from him.
Regarding Madam Xia, the committee found that she did not take adequate TCM assessment of the patient’s condition to determine whether the moxibustion treatment was appropriate for her ailments.
Madam Xia also did not adequately advise the patient on the benefits, risks and possible complications associated with the moxibustion treatments and informed consent was not sought.
The task of administering the treatment was also “inappropriately delegated” to the former clinic assistant, and Madam Xia failed to personally supervise the moxibustion therapy.
[h=3]READ: TCM physician fined S$3,000 after patient burned during treatment[/h]After the inquiry hearing, the TCM Practitioners Board decided to suspend Mr Yap’s registration for two years and six months, with effect from Dec 27, 2019. This is the third time Mr Yap has appeared before the Board for a disciplinary matter.
Madam Xia’s TCM practitioner registration was suspended for nine months from Dec 27, 2019.
Both practitioners were ordered to provide a written undertaking to the board that they will strictly comply with the relevant regulations and provisions in the Ethical Code and will not commit similar breaches again. Both were also issued with a notice of censure.
The TCM Practitioners Board also directed both Mr Yap and Madam Xia to pay for associated costs and expenses.
The board added that it would like to remind all registered TCM practitioners that the insertion of surgical thread under the skin does not fall within the scope of TCM as defined under TCM Practitioners Act, and is not an approved method of TCM treatment in Singapore.
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