College revokes licence of P.A. physician who admitted to misconduct
A Prince Albert doctor who let his medical licence expire after the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Saskatchewan laid professional misconduct charges against him has admitted guilt to multiple charges.
Dr. Josias Furstenberg did not renew his licence in December 2017 and has not been practising medicine in Saskatchewan, but the college has now unconditionally revoked his licence to practice in the province.
The decision was made at a college council meeting.
Furstenberg admitted to professional misconduct charges, including having inappropriate sexual relationships with patients, providing medical care to those patients, inappropriately prescribing large quantities of opioids to one of those patients, and breaching patient confidentiality.
“The concern that the college has, of course, is that inappropriate sexual conduct with a patient is a very serious matter and it can have very serious negative effects on patients, whether that’s consensual, as in this case, or not. And consequently, the college wants to make it quite clear that that form of conduct is unacceptable,” said Bryan Salte, associate registrar and legal counsel for the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Saskatchewan.
“When there’s more than one patient involved and when there are other forms of unprofessional conduct as well, that again makes it makes it even more of a concern to our college, that this was conduct that was of a very significant concern to our college.”
Furstenberg ’s lawyer argued for a conditional revocation, Salte said.
That would have left the door open to him potentially re-establishing his licence.
Furstenberg ’s lawyer wanted the council to include conditions such as counselling and an assessment, arguing that despite his admitted conduct, there was hope for his
return, Salte said.
The registrar’s view was that due to the nature of the allegations, Furstenberg should not have been given the message that he could have his licence reinstated by following any particular criteria, Salte said.
Furstenberg made a statement at the meeting in which he acknowledged and accepted responsibility for the misconduct, Salte noted, adding that the charges against him were amended somewhat before Furstenberg admitted to them.
The college laid the original charges in late November; they were not criminal in nature.
The matter came to light when the mother of one of his patients brought her concerns to the College about Furstenberg’s relationship with her daughter. That triggered an investigation, and the college was granted a court order to seize and search his phone.
Furstenberg first obtained his medical degree from the University of Pretoria in South Africa in 1996, later obtaining a full licence to practise medicine in Saskatchewan in 2010.
The details of the decision have not been posted on the college’s website, and the reasons for the decision won’t be available until after the council’s next meeting in September.