INQUIRY FINDINGS
The TCMPB said that it agreed with most of the findings of the inquiry committee, which found that Mr Chua had failed to provide good clinical care to the complainant in respect of his acupuncture treatment.
He also failed to provide “competent and/or appropriate” care to the man when he did not remove all the needles.
“Although Mr Chua claimed that he done a visual scanning, he had still missed out on the two needles on the complainant’s toe and head areas,” said the board.
“Mr Chua had also admitted that a visual scanning would be insufficient as it had resulted in him missing out on needles which were lodged in areas that he was not able to see.”
The TCM practitioner also did not ensure there were no remaining needles even after he was informed of the unremoved needle on the toe.
The board also agreed with the inquiry committee that there was no or insufficiently appropriate post-treatment care by Mr Chua.
After he had found out on Sep 20, 2021 about the second unremoved needle, he should have called the patient “timeously”. He instead waited about two days before contacting the patient.
Mr Chua’s conduct amounted to a breach of the regulations, said the TCMPB, adding that it fell “so short of expectations as to warrant the imposition of disciplinary sanctions”.
SENTENCE
The TCMPB said that it took guidance from the sentencing framework set out in the case of Wong Meng Hang, who was sentenced to four months’ jail in 2022 for causing the death of his patient during a liposuction procedure.
The board deemed the harm caused by Mr Chua’s conduct to be at the lower end of “moderate”. Harm has also been caused to the standing of and public confidence in the TCM profession, said the board.
Mr Chua’s level of culpability was found to be “low”.
“Mr Chua’s state of mind was negligent. He should have been more careful to check whether there were other unremoved needles on the complainant, especially since he was already alerted to the first unremoved needle at the complainant’s toe area,” said the TCMPB.
The board said the “appropriate starting point” in this case would be a suspension of three months.
“The board has considered the mitigating circumstances raised by Mr Chua, but is of the view that they would not carry much weight in deciding on the appropriate sentence to be imposed,” it added.
According to the government gazette, his suspension will run from Jan 11 to Apr 10, both dates inclusive.
Besides the suspension, Mr Chua has also been censured and ordered to pay the costs and expenses related to the inquiry.
