The CUHK Medical Centre (CUHKMC) revealed that two employees are suspected of abusing their authority to defraud the hospital for extra income, with the institution pledging a strengthening of its internal controls to ensure future compliance with regulations.
The private teaching hospital in Shatin said it had found that there were anomalies in the accounts of two departments when reviewing the financial status in July.
The hospital then reported two department managers suspected of fraud to the law enforcement authority. They were arrested subsequently.
After the investigation, two managerial staff members involved in the case were arrested last Thursday (Sep 18). The hospital has since terminated the employment of both individuals according to the labour legislation.
The chief executive officer of CUHK Medical Centre Chung Kin-lai stated that a review of departmental financial status, initiated after he assumed his post in July, uncovered accounting irregularities at one department.
A subsequent internal investigation revealed discrepancies between the income and workload of certain medical staff, raising suspicions of record falsification.
Chung emphasized that the hospital has always attached great importance to the integrity and professional ethics of its employees and was saddened by the incident.
As the case is still under investigation, no further details will be disclosed at this stage, Chung added.
(From left) Dennis Lo Yuk-ming and Chung Kin-kai.
Dennis Lo Yuk-ming, the chairman of the Board of Directors of CUHKMC noted that he places great importance on hospital governance, thus instructed Chung to proactively disclose the incident and immediately report it to law enforcement agencies.
He noted that the hospital would strengthen its monitoring mechanism and employees' anti-corruption awareness to prevent similar incidents from happening again.
Lo said he has appointed the audit and risk management committee under the CUHKMC Board of Directors to form an investigation committee. The hospital has also engaged an external professional audit firm to conduct a comprehensive review of the hospital's regulatory mechanisms to further investigate whether there are any undiscovered violations.
The system will also be comprehensively reviewed to ensure that the hospital's future operations and employee ethics comply with regulations, while a report will be submitted and revealed to the public after the investigation.
The incident has been handed over to law enforcement agencies for follow-up. The hospital stressed that it will deal with it seriously and ensure that patient treatment and hospital services are not affected.
