MOH intends to revoke MaNaDr licence for medical services
Telehealth company MaNaDr Clinic could soon not be allowed to offer any outpatient medical services as authorities move to revoke its license. Action will also be taken against 41 doctors who have potentially breached medical ethical guidelines, including seven who have been sacked.
The Ministry of Health (MOH) has issued a notice to MaNaDr Clinic on its intention to revoke its licence for the provision of outpatient medical services across all its modes of service deliveries, including physical, temporary and remote services.
“This is in view of MOH’s assessment that MaNaDr Clinic is unable to continue providing outpatient medical services in a clinically and ethically appropriate manner,” said MOH in a statement on Oct 24.
In addition, 41 doctors who provided teleconsultations at MaNaDr Clinic will be referred to the Singapore Medical Council (SMC) for inquiries into possible professional misconduct, as they have potentially breached one or more of the ethical guidelines in SMC’s Ethical Code and Ethical Guidelines, the ministry said.
This comes two months after MOH issued a direction to the telehealth company to stop the provision of outpatient medical services via teleconsultation until further notice.
Investigations by MOH found that a very large number of cases seen by MaNaDr Clinic doctors involved very short teleconsultations with video calls that lasted one minute or less in duration; issuance of multiple MCs over a short period of time; and questionable and poor documentation of patient case notes.
“Based on these findings, there is reason to believe that there is an entrenched culture of disregard for the applicable clinical and ethical standards within MaNaDr Clinic,” said the MOH spokesman.
These guidelines pertain to a doctor’s duty of care, clinical evaluation of patients, provision of telemedicine, medical records, issuance of medical certificates, and prescription of medicines.
Of the 41 doctors referred to SMC, there were 13 who worked as locum practitioners providing teleconsultations at MaNaDr Clinic while being employed by the public healthcare institutions or MOH Holdings.
These doctors had breached their employment terms by undertaking external employment and conducting secondary clinical activities without the approval of their employers, MOH said.
Most of these doctors had also provided teleconsultations while on active duty in the public healthcare institutions.
Five have since left the public healthcare sector, the ministry said.
Of the remaining eight, seven have been dismissed. The remaining doctor, due to lesser severity of his actions, has been subjected to disciplinary action, said the MOH spokesman.
“Doctors who practise telemedicine are reminded to abide by the SMC’s ECEG at all times. MOH views these inappropriate practices and their potential impact on patient safety very seriously and will not hesitate to take further action against doctors, including referral to SMC, for any found to have engaged in professional misconduct,” said the ministry spokesman.
MaNaDr Clinic has 14 days to make representations to MOH.
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