posted Thu 08 Feb 2007 09:02 AM  

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Now, this is disgraceful. Our high and mighty doctors becoming perverts.

Doctor sacked for filming nurses in shower

By Salma Khalik, Health Correspondent
Feb 08, 2007
The Straits Times

A TRAINEE doctor at Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) has been sacked after he admitted to surreptitiously filming nurses in the shower.
Described by colleagues and nurses as 'a wonderful co-worker', he had left a black waist pouch with a video camera running inside it, hanging on the wall of the shower room.

There is only one shower room adjoining each staff rest room, found on every floor of the hospital, and it is used by both men and women.

A ward staff nurse found the pouch just after 3pm on Jan 25 and took it to her supervisor who - seeing the two holes in the pouch and an active video camera - checked the tape and immediately alerted the hospital authorities.

Their suspect was the houseman, as he had been looking for the pouch. Housemen are newly graduated doctors who do a one-year supervised stint at a hospital.

TTSH's chairman of the medical board, Associate Professor Philip Choo, said there was about an hour's worth of recording, including shots of more than one nurse bathing.

He said he looked at only the first part of the video before making a police report on Jan 25. That first five minutes showed the houseman setting up the video to film through a hole in the pouch.

The trainee, a permanent resident from Malaysia, was immediately suspended from work. An internal inquiry was held a week later, in which he admitted to the act. In his defence, he claimed to have been overworked and lonely as his family was overseas.

Prof Choo said the hospital decided to sack the trainee, as it felt that whatever stress the houseman may have been under was no excuse for what he did. 'It was an intentional act,' he said.

The police confirmed that the hospital made a police report on the day the video was discovered and said they are investigating the case.

Prof Choo said the nurses in that ward were very upset the first couple of days.

Director of nursing Kwek Puay Ee said the nurses, who were friendly with this houseman, felt more shocked and betrayed than angry.

Their surprise was all the more as they had worked closely with him and found him 'a wonderful co-worker', she said. To the ward sister, 'he was like a son', Madam Kwek said.

The hospital did not want the ward where the incident occurred to be made public.

Prof Choo has assured the nurses that the contents of the tape would be kept confidential and be seen only by the relevant authorities. Neither he nor Madam Kwek had viewed that portion of the tape.

Prof Choo said sadly: 'He has to pay a very heavy price for this.'

The Singapore Medical Council (SMC), the medical watchdog, has been alerted to the case. Doctors who commit an offence that show a 'defect' in their character may be struck off the register, which means they will not be allowed to practise medicine.

A check by The Straits Times found at least three other doctors who have been caught for outraging the modesty of women. Two of the doctors have been struck off the register - one in 1982 and the other in 1998.

The SMC has yet to look into the case of a radiologist who was jailed two months in April last year for using his cellphone to film up the skirts of two women. He may thus, in the meantime, continue to practise.