Surgeon inflated $400 bill to $211,000

Feb 24, 2011  

Straits Times By Selina Lum

Surgeon Dr Susan Lim marked the price to $211,000 when she billed the Brunei High Commission here. -- ST PHOTO: ALPHONSUS CHERN

A SPECIALIST who treated surgeon Susan Lim's patient sent a bill for $400. She marked it up to $211,000 when she billed the Brunei High Commission here.

Another doctor charged $500, but Dr Lim bumped that up to $93,500. Yet another bill for $3,000 was raised to $285,100.

These and several other revelations of how Dr Lim charged her patient - a woman member of Brunei's royal family - for treatment by other doctors were made in the High Court yesterday by Senior Counsel Alvin Yeo.

Representing the Singapore Medical Council (SMC), he cited the allegedly inflated bills to show there was a case for a disciplinary committee to launch an inquiry against the doctor.

Dr Lim is fighting the SMC's decision to appoint a second disciplinary committee to investigate an accusation by the Health Ministry here that she overcharged her Brunei patient, Pengiran Anak Hajah Damit.

The patient, the younger sister of Brunei's Queen and a cousin of the Sultan, had breast cancer and died in August 2007. Dr Lim treated the woman from 2001 until she died.