Healthcare professionals call for balanced dialogue as patients’ posts on social media can misrepresent situations
A Singaporean doctor is calling on the Ministry of Health (MOH) and the Singapore Medical Council (SMC) to lift restrictions on doctors responding publicly to patient complaints, which he views as increasingly used as “weapons” on social media against healthcare workers. Dr. Desmond Wai, a gastroenterologist and hepatologist, expressed these concerns in a forum letter, pointing out that dissatisfied patients often threaten to post negative reviews about clinics, particularly over issues like wait times.
Dr. Wai argued that while patients have the freedom to voice complaints online, doctors are bound by strict confidentiality and ethical rules, preventing them from sharing their side of the story. “The public should be wary of such complaints from patients, as they tell only one side of the story,” he wrote, explaining that such complaints may be factually incorrect or lack context.
To counterbalance these one-sided narratives, Dr. Wai suggests that MOH and SMC allow healthcare professionals to address patient complaints openly, fostering a fairer representation of events and addressing potential misunderstandings in real-time.
