Doctor who was previously cleared of rape charges gets disbarred for overprescribing cough medicine

SINGAPORE: A general practitioner who was previously cleared of s*xual assault charges has been disbarred from practising medicine and struck off the medical register yesterday (27 Feb) for overprescribing drugs and failing to keep proper patient records.

Wee Teong Boo, 71, pleaded guilty to 10 charges of improperly prescribing codeine-containing cough mixture and benzodiazepines to 10 patients, including two senior citizens and an underage patient. He was aware that at least half of the patients had issues with drug dependency prior to his actions.

Dr Wee also pleaded guilty to 10 counts of failing to keep proper medical records.

The lawyer representing SMC described this as the most serious medical professional misconduct case involving cough medicine and sleeping sedatives in Singapore history and pointed out that the medical doctor profited from patients who were addicted to drugs.

Dr Wee was in the news back in 2020 when he was accused of raping a 23-year-old female patient at his clinic in Bedok. The court initially found him guilty of s*xually assaulting and indecently assaulting a girl but he was acquitted of all charges, upon appeal.