discipline summaries
Romanescu’s conduct, and has both reputational and
financial impact on her. It also sends a message to the
profession that such conduct will not be tolerated.
It is within the Committee’s discretion to award
costs in an appropriate case. The Committee agreed
that it is warranted in this case to award the College
the costs of one day of hearing.
In summary, the Committee ordered the following:
a public reprimand, a one-month suspension of Dr.
Romanescu’s certificate of registration; terms, conditions and limitations on Dr. Romanescu’s certificate
of registration, including working in a group setting,
a practice assessment and abiding by the Re-entering
Practice policy if she returns to practice on or after
December 1, 2015; and payment to the College of
$4,460 for hearing costs.
Order
For complete details of the Order, please see the
full decision at www.cpso.on.ca. Select Doctor
Search and enter the Doctor’s name.
At the conclusion of the hearing, Dr. Romanescu
waived her right to an appeal and the Committee
administered the public reprimand.
Text of Public Reprimand
Dr. Romanescu, while recognizing the challenges you
are having with your health, the Committee is dismayed
that you did not learn from the caution given to you
by the College in 2010. The College policy regarding
practice management during leaves of absence is explicit,
and has been carefully crafted to protect the interests of
your patients in particular, and the confidence of the
public in our profession’s ability to self-regulate.
By failing to establish a system of office administration
during your absence, and to make arrangements for the
ongoing care of your patients, you submitted numerous patients and their family members to significant
anxiety and stress, as well as genuine health risks to your
patients.
We expect that the suspension will send a strong message
to you that your professional reputation has been tarnished. The Committee sincerely hopes that your future in
our profession will benefit from the terms imposed by the
penalty, and that you may be able to rebuild yourself as
an honourable member of our profession.
DR. WEE LIM SIM
Practice Location: Ottawa
Practice Area: Obstetrics and Gynecology
Hearing Information: Agreed Statement of Facts,
Admission, Joint Submission on Penalty
On June 2, 2015, the Discipline Committee found
that Dr. Sim committed an act of professional misconduct, in that he failed to maintain the standard of
practice of the profession in his care of 24 patients,
and in his infection control practices and instrument
reprocessing. The Committee also found that Dr. Sim
engaged in acts or omissions relevant to the practice
of medicine that, having regard to all the circumstances, would reasonably be regarded by members
as disgraceful, dishonourable or unprofessional,
including: inadequate supervision of members of his
staff; improper delegation of responsibilities to his
staff; inappropriate electronic communications with
patients; inappropriate billing to the Ontario Health
Insurance Plan; and his failure to refer Patient A for a
second opinion. Dr. Sim admitted to the allegations.
In October 2012, the College received a letter of
complaint from Patient A in which she expressed
concerns about the sanitary conditions of Dr. Sim’s
office, and about Dr. Sim pressuring her to have an
endometrial biopsy in the office for $20 when she advised that she wished to have it performed elsewhere.
A Medical Inspector retained by the College concluded that the complaint raised the issue of a lack
of proper communication. The Medical Inspector
concluded that Dr. Sim showed a lack of judgment
by failing to refer Patient A to another obstetrician/
gynecologist for a second opinion concerning her endometrial biopsy and whether it should be performed
in an office setting or in a hospital with a hysteroscopy and D&C.
In May 2011, the clinic at which Dr. Sim engaged
Full decisions are available online at www.cpso.on.ca.
Select Doctor Search and enter the doctor’s name.
Issue 2, 2016 Dialogue
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