Earlier this month, the doctor, Christopher Lee Kwan Chen, 31, had been suspended for six weeks by the Tasmanian health tribunal after posting a series of sexist and racist remarks.
However an immediate suspension has been ordered by the health district responsible for Box Hill hospital in Victoria, where he now works as an emergency doctor. The suspension was originally due to start in May to allow time for a replacement to be found, but was brought forward after public protests. It bars him from working anywhere in Australia.
Lee’s offensive remarks included saying: “Some women deserve to be raped, and that supercilious little bitch fits the bill in every way”. About another woman, he reportedly wrote: “She needs to be abandoned in India and repeatedly raped in order for her to wake up her idea.”
Officials of Eastern Health said it had begun its own investigation into the implications of the Tasmanian tribunal’s findings, the Guardian reported in its Australian edition. Lee had previously been cautioned by Royal Hobart hospital, Tasmania, for accessing a patient’s medical records on 21 occasions without consent.
A spokesperson for Victoria’s health minister, Jenny Mikakos, told the Australian Broadcasting Commission that the minister had asked the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency if the six-week suspension was adequate.
“This behaviour is appalling and has no place in Victoria, let alone in our hospitals,” the spokesperson said.
On Eastern Health’s Facebook page, people called for Lee to be fired, while an online petition says his licence to practice medicine should be revoked.
“Dr Lee will not be returning to work until the completion of this investigation,” the Eastern Health statement said. “We wish to advise that Eastern Health takes the issue of professional misconduct very seriously … we value diversity, inclusivity and living together respectfully and do not tolerate disrespectful comments or racism in any form.”
Guardian Australia reported that it had uncovered “a slew of offensive posts” in addition to those investigated by the tribunal, along with examples of Lee posting photographs of medical procedures he performed and patient x-rays.
His remarks were made on his Facebook page, now removed, as well as on a Singapore online forum.
After a tsunami hit Indonesia in September, killing hundreds, Lee wrote: “Don’t bother helping that nation of ingrates.” In February, he wrote: “Singaporean women are some of the most materialistic, pampered and self-entitled women you are likely to meet anywhere.”
Chinese women were described as “calculating, ruthless animals” and the Guardian reported that he took revenge on a woman who had criticised him online by posting her nude photos on the internet, forcing her to close down her online accounts. “A new legion of perverts” would be viewing her images, he wrote, “I won”.
He has also posted photographs of his passport and medical degree and when criticised for his comments, had replied, “Malaysian and Australian authorities can’t touch me for things I say on a Singaporean forum.”
He also wrote: “Lose job in Australia over stuff posted on a Singaporean forum? Are you retarded?”
Lee had also posted photographs of his wife and boasted about their sex life and the tribunal was told that he said in one of his posts: “If my marriage fell apart, it would not end in divorce. It would end in murder.”
Lee has been ordered to undergo training about ethical behaviour on social media but continued posting online, saying: “We’ll see who has the last laugh.”