A doctor who helped the rich and famous get pregnant was yesterday given a suspended jail term for practicing Chinese medicine without being registered or listed.
Among Yip Chin-sang’s reported clients were Lo Suk-yi, wife of popular Cantopop singer Hacken Lee Hak-kan, and Kelly Chen Wai-lam.
Lee has two children while Chen has a son and is now pregnant.
The court earlier heard that Yip continued to practice Chinese medicine although he was permanently delisted by the Chinese Medicine Council in October for failing to maintain records of patients’ treatments. This was considered to be a serious breach of professional conduct.
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Yip pleaded guilty to the two charges of practicing while being deregistered and asked Acting Principal Magistrate David Dufton for a lenient sentence.
In mitigation, Yip said he was not aware of the two letters from the council delisting him. The court heard that Yip came to Hong Kong from the mainland in 1979 and worked as a construction worker for three years. He learned about Chinese medicine from his grandfather and believed in helping people.
Yip told the court he regretted not attending the disciplinary hearing by the council. The defense contended that Yip did not harm or kill anyone and that he was delisted for a procedural matter.
Dufton said any charge involving practicing medicine without a license and not attending disciplinary hearings are very serious charges. This is especially important for doctors because their jobs affect people’s lives, the judge added.
Most doctors who practice without a license are given immediate custodial sentences.
But the judge said since Yip had been a registered Chinese doctor for a long time, and since his wife had passed away a few days ago, he had decided to impose a suspended sentence.
Yip became popular after helping Lo – a former beauty pageant winner – become pregnant. She gave birth to a son in 2007. Through word of mouth many celebrities began visiting him since then.
But Yip was heavily criticized by a woman, surnamed Cheung, who revealed a tragic incident that led to a miscarriage.
Cheung said she visited Yip’s clinic in Causeway Bay in 2009 for what she thought was a stomachache. Yip did not know Cheung was pregnant and prescribed medicine.
Cheung also did not know she was pregnant – until a few months later when she had a miscarriage.
The council then invited Yip to a disciplinary hearing but he never showed up.
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