Former Welland doctor incompetent: College
The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario discipline committee has ruled that a former Welland physician committed an act of professional misconduct in that he failed to maintain the standard of practice of the profession, and engaged in conduct or an act or omission relevant to the practice of medicine that, having regard to all the circumstances, would reasonably be regarded by members as disgraceful, dishonourable or unprofessional.
The May 9 decision stems from a March 2014 investigation into complaints from a pharmacy regarding prescriptions for large quantities of narcotics the college says were written by orthopedic surgeon Dr. Jamal Ali Mohamed Rakem, who practised in Welland from 2010 to 2014.
The discipline committee also found that Rakem is incompetent.
Details of the case are subject to a publication ban to protect the identities of the patients.
The college’s discipline committee decision, published Monday, says it found that “Dr. Rakem showed blatant and repeated errors of judgment that speak to his disregard for the welfare of patients, their families and social acquaintances, and the public in general.”
“When he provided ongoing narcotics prescriptions to Patient A for at least four years without assessment, Dr. Rakem did not consider the risks to which he was exposing this patient,” such as the potential for overdose and addiction, the committee said in its decision.
Rakem was also accused of prescribing narcotics and controlled drugs to four additional patients, failing to keep records related to the medications, and inappropriately prescribing large quantities of narcotics for himself.
The college also alleged that Rakem failed to respond in a reasonable time to a written inquiry.
Rakem denied the allegations against him while representing himself during a hearing on Nov. 4 and 7, 2016.
He testified that “his caring nature compelled him to wish that all orthopedic patients had relief from pain.”
Rakem also admitted asking a fellow physician to write him a prescription for a large amount of long-acting narcotics “so he could take the medications to Libya, for the use of his mother as well as ‘humanitarian use.’”
A penalty hearing for Rakem has yet to be scheduled by the college.
Rakem was previously the subject of a college disciplinary hearing in July 2014 regarding allegations that he sexually abused an 18-year-old female patient in 2012. As a result of that hearing, his licence to practise medicine was suspended for six months.
The college says Rakem has not practised medicine in Ontario since 2014, and resigned from the college in August 2016. The college, however, says it continues to have jurisdiction because Rakem was a college member at the time of the allegations.