S’pore Doctor Forged MC To Himself For One Day So He Can Moonlight At Another Clinic

Some days you get up on the wrong side of the bed and on some other days, it’s hard to get up at all.

The solution to this? A slip of paper called medical certificate.

Students, NS men and the employed – these are the group of people commonly known for going out of their way to obtain a doctor’s medical certificate (MC) to avoid their responsibilities for the day aka chao geng.

But did you know MCs can be used for another purpose? One that is more productive if I may add.

Remember Stu from Hangover? The one who abused his power as a doctor (or rather, dentist) to access anesthetic drugs?

Well similar to Stu, a local doctor was recently caught for the same reason – illegally exercising his rights as a medical professional.

Doctor guilty of forging medical certificate for personal gain

According to Yahoo News Singapore, a hospital doctor by the name of Joel Arun Sursas was guilty of fabricating a medical certificate.

So what did he do with his day off? To moonlight as a locum (or freelance) general practitioner on 17 April (Wednesday).

The 28-year-old first admitted to one out of four charges of forgery before owning up to the other counts, all of which determines his sentence in time to come.

He signed the MCs but left out his name, hoping that his employer will think it’s from another doctor.

This got me thinking – is it acceptable for doctors to issue MCs to their children?

Medical Council takes disciplinary action

Suras was already punished by the Singapore Medical Council (SMC) under the Medical Registration Act.

The 28-year-old was only temporarily registered with the SMC when the offences were committed. However, to rightfully work as a locum doctor, he requires a valid practising certificate and a complete registration with the SMC.

Timeline of the whole incident

Now, if you’re interested, we’ve laid out the entire timeline for you:

2 May 2015

Suras worked under MOH Holdings and was temporarily registered by the SMC. A prerequisite for this was that he could only work as a doctor at SMC-approved places.

5 May 2015 – 31 August 2015

Suras worked at the Accident and Emergency Department of a hospital.

1 September 2015 – 4 January 2016

Sursas was transferred to the Diagnostic Radiology Department at Changi General Hospital (CGH).

During his time at CGH, Suras moonlighted at Etern Medical Clinic as a locum doctor 47 times between 10 July 2015 and 11 December 2015. His stint as a locum doctor earned him $13,000, which works out to about $276 each time he worked there.

On 20 November 2015, Suras reported sick to CGH before working at Etern for 3 hours. 5 days later, the 28-year-old submitted a forged MC from Etern, stating that he was unfit for work on 20 November.

Penalties faced by Suras

Fast forward to October 2018, he was slapped with a three-year suspension, along with a $15,000 fine.

He was also required to give a written undertaking to the SMC, stating that he would turn over a new leaf, as well as cover the costs of the tribunal proceedings and the SMC’s lawyers.

The maximum penalty for forgery is a fine and a jail sentence of up to 4 years.

Discussions are still in place for Suras’ legal penalties in court.