Our hospitals' creative definitions of charity.....

Leong Sze Hian's expose on the NUH (Patient Care Charity Fund) and TTSH  Community and Charity Funds' use of collected money provided another jaw dropping moment for Gigamole.

What's going on here?

How can you use funds collected under the guise of charity to pay for education and training of staff, and the building of hospital infrastructure? For the NUH Fund, only 52% of expenditure apparently went to needy patients, while 48% went to medical education, training and research. For the TTSH Fund, apparently only 47% went to real charity-worthy needs. The rest of the expenditure apparently went to finance the building of infrastructure in the form of a new Emergency Diagnosis and Therapy Centre.

If these revelations are true, Gigamole is extremely offended. Clearly these are abusing donor's and patient's trust, not to mention demeaning to the idea of charity.

The Commissioner of Charities should have something to say about these.

The jaw dropping revelation about NUH's Dr Jay Jiade Lu

Gigamole was not the only one taken aback by the revelations about Dr Jay Lu's past history of being stricken off from the medical register in Florida. The relative silence from the medical community cannot be taken as a general lack of concern. Rather it reflects the discomfort many doctors have about pointing fingers at one of their colleagues. At least publicly.

The issue however should not be lightly dismissed and swept under the carpet.

The Singapore Medical Council has made it very clear that all applicants for registration must have a certificate of good standing and must not be under complaints, pending investigations or any disciplinary actions. That Dr Lu was actually under investigation at the time he applied for registration seems evident. Furthermore, there is no doubt that he failed to 'fess up when he was struck off the register in Florida.  He had a free run for 11 years.

NUHS and NCISs' big heartedness in publicly forgiving Dr Lu is laudable but grossly misplaced. But this is not a Jean Valjean story. The Singapore Medical Council cannot prevaricate in this instance and must act decisively.The damage done institutionally and nationally cannot be easily undone.