Hong Kong’s Hospital Authority has suspended a trainee doctor and a resident physician after their alleged professional misconduct went viral on social media.

In a statement issued on Wednesday evening, the HA said that it had noticed some social media posts discussing an intern doctor’s alleged professional misconduct at different hospitals.

“The HA considers the matter extremely serious, affecting the professional image of healthcare staff,” the statement said.

The authority said it had reported to the police the suspected case of “someone who logged into the Clinical Management System at Caritas Medical Centre (CMC) with another person’s account and accessed patient records at Tuen Mun Hospital without authorisation.”

“The HA has immediately suspended the clinical duties of the intern doctor concerned and a resident doctor at Tuen Mun Hospital, and has also suspended their access right[s] to the system in order to protect patient and system security,” it said.

“The HA has notified the medical school of the relevant university to follow up on the intern doctor’s assessment of being fit for practice.”

According to the statement, before the suspensions, the HA had previously issued a serious warning to the trainee doctor for committing an inappropriate act during an internship at Ruttonjee Hospital and taken disciplinary action against the intern doctor and another resident doctor at CMC. 

It had also taken disciplinary action against the intern doctor and another resident doctor for misconduct at CMC.

The HA’s move comes after a trainee doctor, who published videos documenting her medical internship, allegedly used medical equipment without authorisation to X-ray her own knee and posted a photo of the procedure on social media.

She was also suspected of asking her boyfriend, a resident doctor at Tuen Mun Hospital, to come to Ruttonjee Hospital, where she was interning, to assist her with a medical procedure.

According to netizens, the intern doctor is a social media influencer known as Angel the Medic on YouTube and Instagram.

As of Thursday, all videos on the YouTube channel had disappeared, and the Instagram account had gone offline.

A local couple arrested on suspicion of child neglect has been confirmed as the biological parents of an infant born with no medical records, according to local media.

According to DNA test results, Tsang Wai-bong and Kwan Pui-sin are the parents of two-month-old Danny, local media reported on Thursday, citing unnamed government sources.

The parents, who at first opposed the DNA tests, finally agreed to take them on Wednesday, a day after they were arrested on suspicion of child neglect. The government had demanded that they undergo the tests to register the baby’s birth.

According to media reports, Tsang and Kwan were taken to the Immigration Department headquarters to assist with the investigation on Wednesday after they were released from police detention on a HK$1,000 bail.

The baby boy had not had any medical check-ups since birth, which constituted child neglect, security chief Chris Tang said on Tuesday, when he announced the arrests.

The couple said they practised “free births” and that their baby boy was born in Hong Kong around two months ago. His birth has not been registered, although Hong Kong law stipulates parents must register the birth of a newborn within 42 days of delivery.

Free birth, also called unassisted birth, involves a conscious decision to undergo pregnancy and give birth without professional maternity care or medical intervention. The trend has put the lives of mothers and babies at grave risk.

Infant in gov’t care

Stephanie Lee, a senior social work officer at the Social Welfare Department (SWD), said at a press conference on Wednesday that a court had granted the department a child protection order to care for the baby boy.

She said that Danny remained at the Caritas Medical Centre and would be sent to a care home under the child protection order to ensure his well-being. “We can all rest assured that he is now in the care of professionals,” Lee said.

The SWD will submit a report to the court to determine further welfare arrangements, she added.

Speaking to the press at midnight on Thursday outside the Immigration Department headquarters, the parents said they could apply to visit the child, and that they believed he would be safe with the authorities.

“The arrest was well-intended, as [the authorities] helped us clarify the parental relationship and whether we had committed child abuse,” Tsang said. “They were rather concerned about our son, whether medical care had been inadequate and that his parents’ identities had not been confirmed.”

Prior to their arrests, the couple launched a social media campaign in an attempt to regain custody of their daughter, Lily, from the Swedish government. Their admission of practising “free births” gained widespread attention and sparked concern over Danny’s well-being.

According to local media, the couple’s eldest daughter was born at home in Finland but died in infancy, and the Swedish government removed the second child, Lily, from their care due to health conditions.