Psychiatrist Ang Yong Guan suspended for 3 years for overprescribing medication to patient who later died

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SINGAPORE – Prominent psychiatrist Ang Yong Guan, who has been practising medicine for more than 36 years, has been handed a three-year suspension over numerous prescriptions he made to a patient – prescriptions that deviated from the relevant guidelines.

Dr Ang is also the assistant secretary-general of the Progress Singapore Party, and contested the Marymount seat in the 2020 General Election.

The suspension was handed down by the Court of Three Judges in a written judgment on Feb 5. The court had, in May 2024, found Dr Ang guilty of three charges of professional misconduct.

The most serious charge relates to the last prescription issued to the patient, which entailed a dramatic one-off increase in the dosages of two drugs well beyond the stated maximum limits.

The patient, Quek Kiat Siong, who was then 50, died four days after this prescription was issued in 2012.

The cause of death was certified as “multi-organ failure with pulmonary haemorrhage, due to mixed drug intoxication”.

The final prescription was for a daily dosage of 60mg of antidepressant medication mirtazapine and for a daily dosage of 25mg of a controlled-release form of zolpidem, which is used to treat insomnia.

The permitted maximum daily dosage of the two drugs is 45mg and 12.5mg respectively.

The other two charges relate to prescriptions issued between Feb 8, 2010 and July 31, 2012.

It was not disputed that Dr Ang had deviated from Ministry of Health guidelines issued in 2008 by concurrently prescribing two or more benzodiazepines to the patient.

He had also prescribed benzodiazepines despite being aware that the patient was concurrently taking opioid painkillers, which go against the manufacturers’ recommendations.

Dr Ang’s lawyer, Mr Christoper Chong, had argued for a suspension period of three months.

The lawyer for the Singapore Medical Council (SMC), Mr Edmund Kronenburg, had sought a three-year suspension.

Even though the SMC did not accuse Dr Ang of actually causing the patient’s death, the court said it was entitled to take the death into account in concluding that the final ...

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