SINGAPORE: A doctor has been suspended from practice for three years after she was found to have falsified medical certificates for herself when she missed two days of work without a valid medical reason.
In a notice published on the Government Gazette on the evening of Sept 9, Dr Cherida Yong Chun Yin was ordered to be suspended from Sept 3, 2025 to Sept 2, 2028.
She was also ordered to be censured and required to submit a written undertaking to the Singapore Medical Council (SMC) that she will not engage in similar conduct in future.
She was also ordered to pay the costs and expenses of the proceedings, including costs of the solicitors.
According to the grounds of decision published on the SMC website on Sept 9, Yong was a house officer at Singapore General Hospital when she committed the acts.
She was absent from work on July 1 and Sept 12, 2022, and submitted forged medical certificates that appeared to have been issued by another clinic.
Her ploy came to light after checks, and she was found neither to have visited the clinic nor obtained medical certificates from another doctor.
When asked, she first denied the accusations but later admitted to falsifying the medical certificates, which she attributed to personal stress.
However, the SMC said “there was no evidence of any mental health condition impairing her capacity for reasoned judgment or volition”.
It added that the dishonesty exhibited by Yong was “premeditated, repeated and calculated, warranting the highest sanction available”.
The SMC said: “The deliberate falsification of official medical documents by a medical practitioner represents a serious violation of professional integrity.
“Although no patients were harmed and the conduct was limited to two incidents, this misconduct, while unrelated to clinical care, strikes at a foundational ethical obligation of the profession.” - The Straits Times/ANN
