“MaNaDr Clinic is set to get its license revoked after a Ministry of Health (MOH) probe into its short teleconsultations, with some lasting less than a minute,” the Ministry of Health said. The ministry issued a notice to MaNaDr Clinic on Thursday, stating its intent to revoke the clinic’s license to provide all outpatient medical services, including physical, temporary, and remote consultations.
According to the probe findings, a “very large number of cases” seen by MaNaDr Clinic doctors involved very short teleconsultations, with video calls that lasted one minute or less, but concluded with the prescription of medications and issuance of medical certificates. MOH expressed concerns about the safety and quality of clinical care provided to patients, questioning whether the medications and medical certificates were prescribed and issued on sound medical grounds.
The investigation also revealed that after these short teleconsultations, some patients were issued with multiple medical certificates over a short period of time. MOH further emphasized that there is reason to believe that there is an “entrenched culture of disregard for the applicable clinical and ethical standards within MaNaDr Clinic.”
MaNaDr Clinic has 14 days to make representations to MOH, and MOH is also reviewing whether Dr. Siaw Tung Yeng, the principal officer and clinical governance officer of MaNaDr Clinic, has discharged his duties satisfactorily.
Last year, concerns about certain telemedicine apps issuing medical certificates after extremely brief consultations were reported. In one instance, a CNA reporter obtained a medical certificate from MaNaDr after a remote consultation that lasted only 43 seconds.
The ministry also expressed its intention to refer 41 doctors who conducted teleconsultations for MaNaDr Clinic to the Singapore Medical Council for possible professional misconduct as they had potentially breached ethical guidelines set out by the council.
