Minister reviewing laws for sex offenders in health care

Alberta should consider new legislation to better protect and notify patients about health professionals who have committed sexual offences, Health Minister Sarah Hoffman said Thursday.

Hoffman said her staff has been in touch with counterparts in Ontario, which last year increased the list of sexual abuses that trigger mandatory cancellation of a health professional’s licence.

That same legislation also called for greater transparency so the public can have easy access to more information about a professional’s past conduct.

Hoffman said it may be time for Alberta to adopt similar measures, since the province’s College of Physicians and Surgeons appears to have limited options for sanctioning members who are sexual offenders.

“I’m not convinced they have all the tools they need right now, to be very frank,” she said. “My goal is to ensure anyone can go to a doctor’s office, hospital or clinic without fear the person caring for you could have a history of sexual abuse and you could be vulnerable to that.”

Hoffman said she had “knots in her stomach” while reading about Dr. Ismail Taher, an Edmonton family physician recently reinstated by a college tribunal after two sexual assault convictions for inappropriately touching a patient and a nurse.

The reinstatement comes with conditions, including that Taher use a chaperone when seeing female patients.

College spokesman Steve Buick said the organization has so far received around two dozen calls and emails from frustrated Albertans, many of whom want higher penalties and greater transparency for such cases.

He said the college is fully on board with helping the government move in that direction, but there needs to be consultation first rather than simply “imitating ” Ontario’s legislation.

Professional discipline is constrained, in that sanctions can be thrown out on appeal if they stray too far from case law, Buick said. That’s why new legislation is likely needed to provide more latitude to revoke a doctor’s licence.

Taher, who was convicted in 2015, is working at a south-side clinic.

His restrictions are available on the college’s website, but there is no requirement patients at the clinic be told.