Doctor Challenges Medical Board Decision
By: Michael Knox
Independent Tribune (N.C.)
KANNAPOLIS - A Kannapolis doctor whose license was suspended by the North Carolina Medical Board after he was charged with practitioner unlawfully dispensing a controlled substance has filed a petition challenging the board’s suspension.
Chun-Ho Patrick Ng, 47, of Kannapolis, was charged Jan. 23 by the Kannapolis Police Department, according to court records.
The charge is a felony. Court records show that he unlawfully dispensed prescriptions for Oxycontin. He has a scheduled appearance in Cabarrus County Superior Court on April 9.
Ng’s medical license was suspended by the N.C. Medical Board on Feb. 23, according to an affidavit filed by Ng in Cabarrus County Civil Court on Tuesday.
Ng operated Ng Family Practice Clinic at 302 North Cannon Blvd, Kannapolis.
Ng’s affidavit claims he was a licensed physician from August. 6, 1988 until his suspension in February. He ran his own practice from September 2003 until his suspension, according to the affidavit.
“My practice is suffering irreparable harm due not only to my inability to see patients and generate income, but also due to the loss, and threatened loss, of contracts with health plans and the cancellation of my medical malpractice insurance, all of which is the direct result of the summary suspension of my medical license,” Ng’s affidavit claims.
Ng also filed a petition for review and stay in civil court on Monday. The petition claims the medical board overstepped its boundary by suspending Ng as quickly as they did.
The Medical Practice Act requires notice and a hearing before revoking or suspending a license except in a case where mental incompetence is involved, the petition claims.
The board can suspend Ng’s under emergency action, but only if there is evidence Ng’s charges could warrant an emergency.
“The first finding to support ‘emergency action’ relate to allegations based on events which occurred, if at all, two to four years ago,” the petition claims. “The findings are based on hearsay statements made by informants pursuant to scripted activities perpetrated by persons who were not law enforcement officers.”
The petition goes onto question the reliability of the information informants gave officers.
“These were informants who may or may not have been drug dependent or drug seeking and who may or may not have been experienced health care professional drug seekers,” the petition claims. “Informants experienced in the ‘art and science’ of manipulating health care providers.”
The petition continues to claim that the January charge stems from an event that occurred in February 2004.
“There is nothing to suggest and no finding to support that such allegations required ‘emergency action,’” the petition claims.
Ng’s suspension, according to North Carolina Medical Board records, stems from Ng treating five patients from about September 2003 to September 2006.
During Ng’s treatment of the patients he prescribed large amounts of controlled substances, but failed to obtain an adequately record information in the patients’ records, the document claims.
Ng also prescribed controlled substances without establishing a medical need for the medication, which constitutes unprofessional conduct, according to the document.
