discipline summaries
DR. WXY
It was alleged that Dr. WXY had committed an act of professional misconduct, in that he had sexually abused a patient; and he had committed an act or omission relevant to the practice of medicine that, having regard to all the circumstances, would reasonably be regarded by members as disgraceful, dishonourable or unprofessional. Dr. WXY did not accept the allegations. The Notice of Hearing was dated July 11, 2012. The hearing commenced on August 19, 2013, with the hearing of a motion by the College to waive any requirement to serve the estranged husband of the complainant with the Notice of Motion or other materials in relation to a third party records motion brought by Dr. WXY. At that time, the member was asked to respond to the allegations, which he did by stating that he did not accept them. The Committee thereafter ruled on the College’ s motion, and made certain orders that Dr. WXY had sought with respect to disclosure of records relating to the complainant. The hearing eventually resumed on January 26, 2015. After a brief adjournment requested by the College in order to try to locate the complainant, counsel for the College informed the Committee that although the complainant had been served with a summons, the complainant had advised the College that she was not willing to participate in the hearing or give evidence. College counsel informed the Committee that the complainant’ s physician had stated that providing evidence would be detrimental to the complainant’ s health, and that any further delay that might ensue as a result of adjourning the hearing would not relieve the issues with her health. College counsel informed the Committee that therefore the College would not enforce its summons against the complainant nor seek an adjournment, and that it was forced to withdraw the allegations in the exercise of prosecutorial discretion. Counsel for Dr. WXY submitted that the hearing having commenced and Dr. WXY having responded to the allegations in the Notice of Hearing, the proper disposition was to dismiss the allegations in the absence of any evidence being led against him. He noted that the allegations had been outstanding since they were referred in July 2012, a period of two-and-a-half years. He submitted that disposing of the proceeding by dismissing the allegations was a matter of fairness to Dr. WXY.
Decision and Reasons The hearing commenced almost two years ago, and Dr. WXY responded to the allegations at that time. When the hearing resumed, it was clear that the complainant would not testify voluntarily at that time or at any time in the future, and the College indicated that it had made a decision not to force her to do so. As a result, no evidence was presented in support of the allegations. In light of those circumstances, the Committee concluded that it was fair that there be finality. Accordingly, the Discipline Committee dismissed the allegations in the Notice of Hearing.
Full decisions are available online at www. cpso. on. ca. Select Doctor Search and enter the doctor’ s name.
Issue 2, 2016 Dialogue 71