Random Musings

I almost choked on my dinner when I read this in today’s Straits Times.

The article “Admirer I Rejected Is Heading SMC’s Second Panel” can be found (here).

I guess the gloves are truly off now.

I’m referring, of course, to the infamous Susan Lim saga which undoubtedly drew plenty of attention ever since it made headlines a few weeks ago.

Apparently, Dr Susan Lim was unhappy with the choice of SingHealth Group chief executive Tan Ser Kiat as the chair of the disciplinary committee set up to investigate the allegations against her, because she claims that she rejected his romantic overtures 30 years ago.

Say what???

To quote from the article:

“Her (Dr Susan Lim) lawyers also wrote to Prof Tan (Ser Kiat) on the same day, saying that some time between 1980 and 1982, he had been ‘an admirer’ of Dr Lim and expressed interest in her while she was a junior doctor at Singapore General Hospital (SGH). Prof Tan allegedly met Dr Lim and her parents at their family home and sent a large bouquet of flowers in advance of his visit. There, he danced with Dr Lim ‘late into the night’ in the presence of her mother. He then allegedly invited Dr Lim out on a dinner date and asked if they could ‘go steady’, but Dr Lim said she was not interested as she felt they were incompatible.”

Wow, is this the kind of thing that high-profile surgeons pay their high-profile lawyers to write about?

I’m amazed.

I kinda pity Prof Tan for having his name being dragged in the dirt, regardless of whether the story about the romantic overtures is true or not.

Hey if I were him, I might pen a response as follows:

“Thirty years is indeed a long time. I must have long forgotten the events of those times, and would not have been reminded of them had Dr Lim not recounted them in such vivid detail. I suppose time allows most people to move on with their lives, although some might perhaps take longer to forget than others.”

…

Anyway, let’s talk a bit about the Susan Lim case.

I don’t think you could classify this as your average “Sim Lim Square con job”.

It’s not as simple as that.

In fact, I do not think that Dr Susan Lim was a con artist.

That is not to say that I found her actions the least bit desirable.

I think the issues here are as such – Were her mark-ups reasonable? Were they justifiable? Were they ethical? Were they legal?

Let’s clear the last question first.

They were definitely legal, because we have to remember that it was a perfectly legal and consenting business transaction between two knowing parties.

Let’s say I ask you to come water my plants every day at 8am, and you quote me a fee of $4,500 per day, and I accept.

Regardless of whether it makes sense or not, it’s still a legal business transaction because I have agreed to pay you the fee which you have quoted.

…

I think the key thing to remember here is that Dr Susan Lim could pretty much name her price to her very special and exclusive Brunei client, because i) the client was willing to pay, and ii) the client didn’t want to be tended to by any other doctor.

Granted, a marked-up bill of $211,00 from a third-party expense of $400 would make even the shrewdest businessman sit up and take notice.

Who has ever heard of a 527.5x mark-up?

People who are up in arms over the actions of Dr Susan Lim, you probably have to ask yourself this – Are you upset because she overcharged, or are you upset because she was in a position to earn exorbitant mark-ups and you weren’t?

And the next question to probably ask is – If you were somehow put in her position, would you have done the same?

I would guess that the most common response would be “I would never have done that! What she did was preposterous!”

True, it is rather preposterous.

I wouldn’t disagree.

But I would then like to ask – If you could simply name your price to your client…how much would you mark-up, then?

You would probably say “Not so much lah! I would definitely not mark-up as much as she did! I would never imagine marking-up a bill 527.5 times!”

Okay…so how much would you mark up? 100x? 30x? 5x? 1.5x?

Ask yourself that question.

What is the ethical amount to mark-up?

Nobody knows.

There is probably no such thing as the “magic” figure to mark-up.

Is marking-up unethical?

Certainly not.

It exists in all for-profit businesses.

If you don’t mark-up, how are you going to survive? How are you going to pay your expenses, your overheads, your salaries?

The real question is how to determine the appropriate extent to mark-up.

Some people might want to play the “But she’s a doctor! She should remain true to the ethics of her profession!” card.

Er…okay.

And doctors are supposed to work for a mere pittance? Doctors are supposed to earn just enough to make ends meet? Doctors aren’t allowed to make a profit? Doctors aren’t allowed to get rich thanks to their highly-specialised and highly sought-after expertise?

Look, I’m not condoning what Dr Susan Lim did.

In my opinion, what she did was highly undesirable.

But I just feel that she happened to find herself in a very unusual and fortuitous position whereby she could simply name her price, and I’m not sure if nobody else in the world would have done the same or worse if they were in the same position as she was in.