Weight loss clinic doctor suspended
Substandard care of gastric banding patients
TORONTO• The medical director of Canada’s busiest private weight- loss surgery clinic has been suspended three months for substandard care of patients, including one who died in a Calgary hotel room a day and a half after his operation.
Dr. Patrick Yau has said he conducted 6,000 gastric banding surgeries at the Slimband clinic in downtown Toronto whose colourful advertising was once widespread.
But as Yau was censured Wednesday by Ontario’s College of Physicians and Surgeons for providing poor preparation and after- care for patients, his hearing was told that Slimband itself closed down last month.
His discipline related to two specific cases, including one where he gave weightloss surgery to a 61- year- old woman who had a normal BMI. Experts say such treatment, which can have complex physical and emotional side effects, should only be for the morbidly obese.
The other case involved a 38- year- old obese man from High Prairie, Alta., with type 1 diabetes, who was released a day after his operation without any testing of blood sugar.
He flew back to Alberta that day and was found dead in a hotel room the next morning, the hearing heard. The Alberta coroner said he died from bacterial meningitis and complications of his diabetes. The College discipline committee chastised Yau for not having proper procedures in place before patients are discharged.
He pleaded “no contest” to charges of failing to meet standards of the profession, and in exchange the College withdrew a charge of incompetence.
It was not his first run- in with the regulator.
The hearing heard he had been cautioned — a lower form of censure — three times before f or similar issues. And he was twice ordered to undergo remedial education, including having a personal “coach” in 2015.
As is the College’s policy, none of that history was made public, until a patient released one of those previous rulings to the National Post in 2014.
With extensive advertising on TV and the Internet, Slimband was t he most visible of private clinics across the country that offer weight- loss surgery, and described itself the busiest. Yau said he has performed over 6,000 gastric-band surgeries, more than any other physician in the country, usually with “excellent results.”
A 2012 National Post report, however, quoted malpractice lawsuits and former Slimband employees who raised questions about whether patients who signed on following a persistent sales effort were adequately screened, sufficiently warned about possible complications or provided sufficient post-operative care.
The company said at the time that patients are fully informed of the risks and receive post- op service that is the best in the industry. It also cited customer surveys that showed the vast majority of patients were satisfied.
Though its website is still live, Slimband closed on March 22, said Elisabeth Widner, the College’s prosecuting lawyer. She did not explain reasons for the shutdown.
Like most of the other private clinics, Slimband implanted a l iquid-filled band around the stomach, creating a small pocket and a narrow opening to the rest of the organ. The pocket fills with food quickly, making the patient feel full much sooner than normal.