Too many doctors are unable to keep their hands off patients and it is becoming more difficult to keep sweeping this under the rug. Concern about sexual abuse of female patients by a small proportion of male doctors has increased over the past decade.
This column claimed recently this is one of the reasons doctors no longer are on the pedestal on which the public traditionally has placed them.
The Ontario Medical Association, which represents doctors, leaped as if jabbed with a blunt needle, accusing the writer of being negative and in the
dark.
The OMA said doctors are required to keep to the highest standards and, while some in every profession behave badly, cases of doctors misbehaving are few and far between.
It added most doctors do all they can for their patients, although this was never in dispute.
The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, which licenses and regulates doctors, has now delivered what is in effect a second opinion not supportive of the OMA.
The college normally reports its disciplinary actions against doctors in its official newsletter, published six times a year, at the rate of an average couple per issue.
But it has dealt with so many recently it said it is taking the unusual step of making its October issue a special edition devoted entirely to the publication of discipline summaries.
It said this was necessary because there has been a sharp increase in the number of hearings of complaints against doctors and this has created a backlog in publishing them.
The wrongdoings included doctors charging for treatments they did not give and doctors providing substandard service, but most were of sexual abuse.
In one, Dr. Alan Ralph Abelsohn of Toronto was found to have sexually abused a woman patient on more than 30 occasions by rubbing his hands over her breast and buttocks, and the college suspended his licence for 12 months.
Dr. Stanley Thomas Dobrowolski of London was suspended for six months after he treated a woman for depression by means including massaging the top of her leg and he met her in a hotel room where she said he fondled her breasts.
Dr. James Rolf Gatrall of Windsor had sex with one woman patient several times in his office and with another in exchange for prescribing a
medically unnecessary drug to which she became addicted. The college took away his licence.
Dr. Larry Scott Henderson of Whitby treated a woman and her children for five years and soon after began a romantic and sexual relationship with her, which the college ruled dishonorable and unprofessional and it suspended his licence for three months.
Dr. Vasilios Kavouris of Brampton treated a woman, her husband and children and had a romantic relationship with her that included some sexual contact. The college suspended him for nine months.
Dr. Philip Daniel Kernerman of Toronto, while working in two hospitals, behaved on a number of occasions in what the college called an inappropriate or sexually suggestive manner to female staff and visitors. His licence was revoked.
Dr. Stephen George Ross of Tottenham stood too close to patients and nurses in a hospital, poked and touched them inappropriately, and touched his genitals. He said he was being playful, but the college found this unprofessional and reprimanded him.
Dr. Ian Kent Shiozaki of Newboro had a nurse whom he also treated. He fondled her breasts and they undressed and he lay on top of her in his office, although they did not have intercourse. The college suspended him for six months.
Dr. Mark Lawrence Waxman of Hamilton had sex with two women patients. He discussed the marital problems of one and then went to her home, where they had intercourse regularly. The college revoked his licence.
So many cases underline the fact that doctors are in a special position to take advantage of vulnerable women and this is not a small issue, although
some pretend it barely exists.
