Dialogue Volume 12 Issue 3 2016 | Page 44

discipline summaries A reprimand is required by law where a finding of sexual abuse has been made. The force of a personal reprimand should not be underestimated. A reprimand will provide the Committee the opportunity to address the member’s misconduct in a face to face encounter. It also supports the principles of specific and general deterrence. The Committee determined that payment by Dr. Iqbal to the College of its costs is appropriate in this matter. The Committee was aware that costs should be reasonable and not punitive. The Committee ordered that costs in the amount of $49,060 representing 11 days at the tariff rate of $4,460 be payable by Dr. Iqbal to the College. In summary, the Committee ordered the following: revocation, a reprimand, reimbursement to the College for funding provided to patients under the program required under section 85.7 of the Code with an i rrevocable letter of credit in the amount of $64,240, and payment to the College for costs in the amount of $49,060. 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. On November 17, 2015, Dr. Iqbal appealed the decision of the Discipline Committee to the Divisional Court. On December 3, 2015, Dr. Iqbal abandoned the appeal of the decision of the Discipline Committee to the Divisional Court. Text of Public Reprimand Dr. Iqbal, it is always unfortunate when a member of our profession appears before this Committee. An essential component of the physician-patient relationship is trust and that the physician will always place the best interests of their patients before their own. You have breached that trust. Being a physician involves a responsibility to care for your patients in an appropriate, civil and respectful manner, none of which you exhibited. This Committee was shocked and dismayed to hear of the reprehensible manner you treated some of your most vulnerable patients. It was callous, unthinking, reprehensible and unforgiveable. Your behaviour was not only profoundly disturbing to the patients you 44 Dialogue Issue 3, 2016 abused but also to the physician and public members of this Committee. There is little to say other than we, the profession and the public condemn your behaviour in the strongest terms. Your revocation will demonstrate that the profession cannot and will not tolerate such egregious behaviour from its members. You have brought shame not only to yourself but also to the profession as a whole. There is no place in our profession for a physician who abuses their patients for self-gratification. You will now leave this hearing room as a disgraced physician. DR. Eleazar Humberto Noriega Practice Location: No Practice Address; Formerly Toronto Practice Area: Pediatrics Hearing Information: Allegations Denied, Contested Hearing (9 days); Decision Appealed On November 3, 2014, the Discipline Committee found that Dr. Noriega committed acts of professional misconduct, in that he has engaged in sexual impropriety with a patient and he has engaged in conduct or 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. The Committee found that Dr. Noriega inappropriately rubbed the clitoris of a teenage female patient during a medical appointment at a teen health clinic in 1979. Ms X, a teenager at the time, had been Dr. Noriega’s patient at the clinic for approximately one year. She had seen him regularly over that period of time and had developed a trusting therapeutic relationship with him. At her last appointment with Dr. Noriega, while she was alone with him in the examination room, he had stimulated her clitoris with his fingers over a period of several minutes, causing her to experience an orgasm. She felt embarrassed and ashamed, she resolved never to return to the teen health clinic, and