We refer to the Forum article titled “Paediatrician’s actions fell short of standard of care” published in the Straits Times (ST) on, Tuesday, 1 August 2017, in response to the ST article titled “1,000 doctors petition to revoke paediatrician’s suspension” dated 13 July 2017. 

The SMC’s original reply to ST stated that “In this regard, the SMC highlights that it was the DT and not the SMC’s expert, Associate Professor Chao Sing Ming who wrote that Dr Chia’s management of the patient “amounted to serious negligence”.”  ST’s published version of SMC’s reply on 1 August reads: “In this regard, the council highlights that it was the Disciplinary Tribunal's and not the SMC's expert, Associate Professor Chao Sing Ming, who wrote that Dr Chia's management of the patient "amounted to serious negligence".” 

Unfortunately, when ST changed “DT” to “Disciplinary Tribunal’s”, it changed the intended correction completely. Subsequently, the SMC wrote to the ST Forum editor to correct this as it was the Disciplinary Tribunal itself, and not the expert, who had written it. ST has acknowledged the editorial error and made the correction in its online version (updated on 11 August 2017) and print version (Saturday, 12 August 2017, page A2, under the heading, “What it should have been” ) as below.

ST Online Version
Correction note: There was an editing error in a previous version of this letter, which said that it was the Disciplinary Tribunal's and not the SMC's expert, Associate Professor Chao Sing Ming, who wrote that Dr Chia's management of the patient "amounted to serious negligence". We have corrected it to say that it was the Disciplinary Tribunal and not the expert who had written that Dr Chia's management of the patient “amounted to serious negligence". We are sorry for the error.

ST Print Version
What it should have been
The Singapore Medical Council’s (SMC) letter, “Paediatrician’s actions fell short of standard of care”, published in the Forum page on Aug 1,  was wrongly edited to say it was “the Disciplinary Tribunal’s and not the SMC’s expert, Associate Professor Chao Sing Ming”, who wrote that Dr Chia Foong Lin’s management of the patient “amounted to serious negligence”. It was the Disciplinary Tribunal and not the expert which wrote in its judgement that Dr Chia’s management “amounted to serious negligence”. We are sorry for the error.