As seen in the Globe and Mail. Edited for Space
The competency of a Toronto psychiatrist who was treating Chau Huc Minh at the time he massacred his family in 2006 is under scrutiny by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario.
The College has scheduled a hearing to determine whether the psychiatrist - Dr. Hung-Tat Lo - is competent to continue practising in light of his actions in the Chau case and 15 other unspecified cases.
The main complaint behind the hearing appears to be one lodged last year by Mr. Chau's sister, Jenny Chu. Ms. Chu alleged that Dr. Lo refused her plea to have Mr. Chau sent to a hospital for an assessment and possible treatment on Jan. 6, 2006. Five weeks later - on Feb. 9, 2006 - Mr. Chau used a meat cleaver to inflict fatal injuries on his wife, Shao-Fang, his three-year-old daughter, Vivian, and his five-month-old baby, Ivan.
A CPSO document states that its disciplines committee will decide whether Dr. Lo "failed to maintain the standard of practice and is incompetent in his care and treatment - including, but not limited to - his assessments, diagnoses, treatment and record-keeping, of 15 patients whose identities have been made known to Dr. Lo, between about July, 1983, and July, 2007."
It said the probe will also consider whether Dr. Lo displayed "a lack of knowledge, skill or judgment or disregard for the welfare of his patients of a nature," to the point that his practice should be restricted or terminated.
In the meantime, Dr. Lo has been told to submit sample medical charts and other patient information at least once every two weeks to a doctor appointed by the College to monitor his work.
CPSO spokesman Jill Hefley said in an interview yesterday that a complaint is referred to a disciplines hearing only if there has been a determination that "reasonable and probable cause" exists to believe it may be well founded.
Ms. Chu complained that she told Dr. Lo that her brother's behaviour had grown alarmingly erratic. "I was concerned that he might hurt his two young kids and wife" she said in her complaint. "Therefore, I urged Dr. Lo to send him to hospital with detailed descriptions of his strange behaviour."
[...]
Upon leaving Dr. Lo's clinic that day - Jan. 6, 2006 - Ms. Chu claimed that she tried to coax her brother to go straight to the hospital. She said that Mr. Chau became furious, and said: "Even Dr. Lo said that I was okay. Why must you make me go to a hospital?"
Mr. Chau was found not criminally responsible in the killings earlier this week by a Toronto judge.
According to a transcript from Mr. Chau's 2007 preliminary hearing, Dr. Lo denied that Ms. Chu asked him to admit her brother to hospital at the Jan. 6, 2006, meeting. Dr. Lo acknowledged that he saw Mr. Chau for just 140 minutes during the 12 years that he treated him. However, Dr. Lo, who stated he sees 15-20 patients a day, said that he didn't see it as necessary to spend more time with Mr. Chau.
Dr. Lo's office was closed this week, and he did not return telephone messages.
Peter Lindsay, Mr. Chau's defence lawyer, expressed misgivings yesterday about the quality of care his client was given. "The compelling story here is that Dr. Lo sees him so little. If you do the math, he saw him for just over 11 minutes a year. I'm not a doctor, but I think that's far short of what he should be seeing this guy."
[...]
Other victim
Chau Huc Minh was not the first of psychiatrist Hung-Tat Lo's mentally ill patients to explode into violence.
In 2004, two years before Mr. Chau's killing rampage, a 36-year-old Chinese immigrant, Xuan Peng, drowned her four-year-old, autistic baby in a bathtub at her Scarborough home.
She had been under Dr. Lo's care at the time.
According to a 2005 bail ruling that freed Ms. Peng pending her first-degree murder trial, Dr. Lo was treating her for a bipolar disorder at the time that her daughter, Scarlett, drowned.
The presiding judge at the bail hearing was Ontario Superior Court Judge David McCombs.
He was persuaded to grant Ms. Peng bail partly based on testimony from Dr. Lo, who said that she was capable of being managed in the community and agreed to supervise her treatment.
[...]
Police arrested Ms. Peng seven months after Scarlett's death. Last March, she was found guilty of second-degree murder, notwithstanding her history of mental illness.
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