Monday, October 20/14
Join us for a Peaceful Protest
This will be a peaceful protest to promote accountability for all harmed
patients.
We are the Coalition for Physician and Surgeon Oversight
The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO) describes its
mandate as follows: “To serve and protect the public interest by regulating the
practice of the profession and governing in accordance with the Regulated Health
Professions Act.”
Despite this, the CPSO has evolved so that its focus has become more
about protecting physicians than patients. It is perhaps natural that doctors
tend to believe that their colleagues always do the right thing. Sadly, not all
doctors are careful and responsible all the time, and some doctors routinely act
in ways that harm their patients. Sometimes, doctors cause extreme harm and
death. The CPSO has shown itself ineffective in identifying and taking action
against members in such cases. Consequently, we believe that the public is not
being adequately protected, and we believe that the CPSO must be replaced as the
body responsible for monitoring and taking disciplinary action where physicians
are failing to meet safe practice standards.
We will be starting at the College of
Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario at 8:30 a.m. and then moving on to Queens' Park.
click here to view PRESS RELEASE
NEWS RELEASE
Families Devastated by Physician Negligence
Protest Lack of Accountability
The Coalition for Physician and Surgeon Oversight (CPSO.co)
invites all interested parties to join them at 8:30 a.m. on Monday Oct 20, in
front of 80 College St, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO)
building. From there the group will
walk to Queen’s Park to protest Ontario’s lack of accountability for
malpractice, and to demand change.
Every year, 40,000 Canadians die as the result of medical
treatments1. Prescription
drugs, taken as directed are the fourth leading cause of all deaths2.
Some of these preventable tragedies are definitely due to physician
carelessness, ignorance, and disregard for patient safety.
There are no deterrents or disincentives for Doctors who
provide bad care. It is practically
impossible to successfully sue doctors.
The Criminal Code specifically requires that medical treatments be
provided with reasonable knowledge, skill and care.
It defines criminal negligence as acting with a reckless disregard for
the lives or safety of other persons.
When death results, criminal negligence is an indictable offence
punishable by up to life in prison3.
So, Canadian law provides for recourse in cases of serious medical
negligence, but in practice it is not used.
The CPSO is supposed to regulate the practice of medicine
to protect and serve the public interest.
Naturally, they protect the majority of physicians who offer their
patients the best possible care.
Unfortunately, they also protect the few doctors who are ignorant and careless.
The CPSO Annual report shows that of the 2,146 public
complaints it dealt with in 2013, no action was taken for 1,256 (59%), and
physicians were given advice, issued cautions or required to take an educational
course in 828 (39%). Only 52 (2%)
went to Discipline Committee and most of those ended up receiving a caution or
an educational course as well. In
Ontario, doctors who cause death and serious harm do not lose their licenses and
seldom have practice restrictions imposed.
To the CPSO, receiving written advice or taking a course is a harsh
result, reserved for egregious malpractice.
Bereaved and damaged families find it upsetting that the
CPSO thinks these are suitable consequences for negligence causing serious harm
or death. Outraged people who
appeal to the Health Professionals Appeal and Review Board quickly discover that
HPARB cannot question physician decisions, and can only send cases back to the
CPSO for reconsideration, which it does only 6% of the time.
The CPSO failure to serve the public interest has been
known for a long time. In 1997 MPP
Monte Kwinter got the Medicine Act amended to protect the right to offer
alternative therapies.
In 2000, Health Minister Elizabeth Witmer engaged KPMG to examine how the
CPSO functions. The problems
KPMG identified were never solved. The
United Kingdom solved its problems by replacing physician self-regulation with
oversight by an independent body.
CPSO.co wants Ontario to do the same.
Footnotes:
[1]
“The Canadian Adverse Events Study: the incidence of adverse events among
hospital patients”, the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ), May 25th
2004,
2Over a decade ago,
Professor Bruce Pomerance of the University of Toronto concluded that properly
prescribed and correctly taken pharmaceutical drugs were the fourth leading
cause of death in the U.S.
3Criminal
Code of Canada, Sections 216, 219 and 220
Data:
ICRC* CPSO Disposition of Public
Complaints, 2013 |
||
|
Number |
Percent(%) |
No action |
1,256 |
59 |
Advice to M.D. |
461 |
21 |
Caution in writing |
203 |
10 |
Caution in person |
88 |
4 |
Disciplines Committee |
52 |
2 |
SCERP |
76 |
3 |
Undertaking |
10 |
1 |
TOTAL |
2,146 |
100 |
|
|
|
Complaints appealed to HPARB** |
509 |
100 |
HPARB returns for reassessment |
33 |
6 |
|
|
|
*Inquiries, Complaints and Reports Committee **Health Professionals Appeal and Review Board *** Specified Continuing Educational or Remediation
Program source:
CPSO 2013 Annual Report |
New Investigations 2013, CPSO |
|
Intake |
859 |
Public Complaints |
2,294 |
Registrar’s Investigations |
280 |
Incapacity Investigations |
64 |
TOTAL |
3,497 |
source:
CPSO 2013 Annual Report |
Attachment: Excerpts from the criminal code of canada
Duties Tending to Preservation of Life
Duty of persons undertaking acts dangerous to life
216. Every one who undertakes to administer surgical or medical treatment to
another person or to do any other lawful act that may endanger the life of
another person is, except in cases of necessity, under a legal duty to have and
to use reasonable knowledge, skill and care in so doing.
R.S., c. C-34, s. 198.
Criminal Negligence
Criminal negligence
219. (1) Every
one is criminally negligent who
o
(a) in doing anything,
or
o
(b) in omitting to do
anything that it is his duty to do,
shows wanton or reckless
disregard for the lives or safety of other persons.
Definition of “duty”
(2) For the purposes of this section, “duty” means a duty imposed by law.
R.S., c. C-34, s. 202.
220. Every person who by criminal negligence causes death to another person
is guilty of an indictable offence and liable
(a) where a firearm is
used in the commission of the offence, to imprisonment for life and to a minimum
punishment of imprisonment for a term of four years; and
(b) in any other case,
to imprisonment for life.
R.S., 1985, c. C-46, s. 220;
1995, c. 39, s. 141.
Causing bodily harm by criminal negligence
221. Every one who by criminal negligence causes bodily harm to another
person is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term
not exceeding ten years.
Homicide
Homicide
222. (1) A
person commits homicide when, directly or indirectly, by any means, he causes
the death of a human being.
Kinds of homicide
(2) Homicide is culpable or not culpable.
(3) Homicide that is not culpable is not an offence.
(4) Culpable homicide is murder or manslaughter or infanticide.
Idem
(5) A person commits culpable homicide when he causes the death of a human
being,
o
(a) by means of an
unlawful act;
o
(b) by criminal
negligence;
o
(c) by causing that human being, by threats or
fear of violence or by deception, to do anything that causes his death; or
o
(d) by wilfully frightening that human being, in
the case of a child or sick person.
Death that might have been prevented
224. Where a person, by an act or omission, does any thing that results in
the death of a human being, he causes the death of that human being
notwithstanding that death from that cause might have been prevented by
resorting to proper means.
R.S., c. C-34, s. 207.
Death from treatment of injury
225. Where a person causes to a human being a bodily injury that is of itself
of a dangerous nature and from which death results, he causes the death of that
human being notwithstanding that the immediate cause of death is proper or
improper treatment that is applied in good faith.