Yip Man Hing Kevin v Gleneagles Hospital

• Jurisdiction: Singapore
• Judgment Date: 24 January 2014
• Date: 24 January 2014
• Docket Number: Originating Summons No 877 of 2013 (Summons No 5324 of 2013)
• Court: High Court (Singapore)

Yip Man Hing Kevin

Plaintiff

and

Gleneagles Hospital

Defendant

[2014] SGHC 15

Choo Han Teck J

Originating Summons No 877 of 2013 (Summons No 5324 of 2013)

High Court

Administrative Law—Judicial review—Ambit—Test for leave under O 53 Rules of Court (Cap 322, R 5, 2006 Rev Ed) —Whether suspension of doctor susceptible to judicial review—Whether source of power to suspend doctor statutory—Whether decision-maker performing public function—Order 53 Rules of Court (Cap 322, R 5, 2006 Rev Ed)

The applicant was Dr Yip, an orthopaedic surgeon who has been in private practice for about 15 years at Gleneagles Medical Centre. He was accorded accreditation and privileges to practice at Gleneagles Medical Centre by Gleneagles Hospital, the respondent. Gleneagles Hospital had subjected Dr Yip to a disciplinary process, at the culmination of which Gleneagles Hospital decided to suspend Dr Yip's accreditation and privileges to practice. Dr Yip hence brought this application to seek leave to review the decision, and disciplinary process, of Gleneagles Hospital.

Held, dismissing the application:

(1) For leave to review a decision under O 53 of the Rules of Court (Cap 322, R 5, 2006 Rev Ed) to be granted, one of the requirements was that decision had to be susceptible to judicial review: at [9] .

(2) In determining if a decision was susceptible to judicial review, regard had to be had to the source, as well as the nature, of the power behind that decision. If the source of the power was derived from statute or subsidiary legislation, the decision might be susceptible to judicial review. Even if the source of the power was non-statutory, the decision might be susceptible to judicial review if the maker of the decision performed public functions: at [10] .

(3) The source of Gleneagles Hospital's power to suspend Dr Yip was not legislation. Rather, it was the ‘Medical Advisory Board Professional Performance Review Committee Role & Responsibility’, which was a set of rules that governed how Gleneagles Hospital disciplined doctors. This set of rules gained legitimacy solely from the contract between Dr Yip and Gleneagles Hospital: at [11] .

(4) In suspending Dr Yip, Gleneagles Hospital was not exercising a public function. It was merely carrying out functions pursuant to the contract it had entered into with Dr Yip: at [12] .

(5) As the decision to suspend Dr Yip was not of a judicial or quasi-judicial nature and neither was the source of the power to make that decision legislation, this application did not concern a matter that was susceptible to judicial review and was hence dismissed: at [13] .

Lim Mey Lee Susan v Singapore Medical Council [2011] SGHC 131 (refd)

Marplan Pte Ltd v AG [2013] 3 SLR 201 (refd)

Yeap Wai Kong v Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Ltd [2012] 3 SLR 565 (distd)

Private Hospitals and Medical Clinics Act (Cap 248, 1999 Rev Ed)

Rules of Court (Cap 322, R 5, 2006 Rev Ed) O 53

Securities and Futures Act (Cap 289, 2006 Rev Ed) s 23

Edwin Tong, Kenneth Lim and Christine Tee (Allen & Gledhill LLP) for theapplicant

Lok Vi Ming SC, Audrey Chiang and Calvin Lim (Rodyk & Davidson LLP) for therespondent

Khoo Boo Jin for the Attorney-General's Chambers.

Choo Han Teck J

1 This Originating Summons was an application for leave under O 53 of the Rules of Court (Cap 322, R 5, 2006 Rev Ed). The applicant was Dr Kevin Yip Man Hing (‘Dr Yip’). He is an orthopaedic surgeon who has been in private practice for about 15 years at Gleneagles Medical Centre. Dr Yip was accorded accreditation and privileges to practice at Gleneagles Medical Centre by Gleneagles Hospital (‘GEH’), the respondent in this case. GEH is a private hospital, licensed under the Private Hospitals and Medical Clinics Act (Cap 248, 1999 Rev Ed) (‘PHMC’).

2 Two of Dr Yip's patients were important to the case. The first was Shanmugan Baskaran (‘Shanmugan’), who was admitted, after having been hit by an excavator, on 13 March 2012. He was primarily treated by the on-call...