The recent case of a prominent Brampton physician accused of sexually abusing a patient has again raised questions over the secret handling of such complaints by Ontario’s medical regulator. The case of Dr. Brian Thicke has also highlighted that the number of complaints of a sexual nature that are dismissed in secret by a committee of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO) are not compiled and made public along with other discipline-related statistics in the college’s annual report.It has led one critic to reiterate her calls for a complete overhaul of the system designed to protect Ontario patients from sexual abuse at the hands of their health care professionals.Dr. Brian Thicke, father of the late actor Alan Thicke and grandfather to singer Robin Thicke, is accused of groping a female patient’s breasts on two occasions, in 1993 and 1995, when she attended his office for a physical examination, required to obtain a private pilot’s licence.He has denied that his conduct was sexual in nature or inappropriate. Lisa Fruitman, who consented to her name being published in the Star, sent her complaint to the CPSO in 2015, where it was dismissed in secret by a panel of the inquiries, complaints and review committee (ICRC), which is made up of doctors and members of the public, and which screens complaints by reviewing documentary evidence but does not hear from witnesses. The complaint only became public after Fruitman appealed to the Health Professions Appeal and Review Board (HPARB), a civilian body that makes its rulings public.An HPARB panel criticized nearly every finding made by the complaints committee, called its decision “unreasonable,” and ordered that it review Fruitman’s complaint again.The HPARB ruling offers a glimpse into how the secretive complaints committee at the CPSO operates. Medical malpractice lawyer Paul Harte has argued that the committee should never be dealing with sexual abuse comp ...
|