Watchdog takes action on cyberbully doctors
Six physicians sanctioned for online attacks on colleagues, three others face disciplinary hearings
Ontario’s medical watchdog is cracking down on cyberbullying doctors, the Star has learned.
The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO) has sanctioned six doctors for attacking other physicians online. Three more face disciplinary hearings into alleged “professional misconduct,” while investigations into another two are ongoing.
The ugly infighting within the profession is related to a contract dispute between the Ontario Medical Association (OMA) and the provincial government.
Those targeted in online attacks earlier this year and last year include former OMA president Dr. Virginia Walley, Toronto family physician Dr. Philip Berger, a medical student and Health Minister Dr. Eric Hoskins.
Problems of bullying and disrespect are rife within the medical profession, according to the Canadian Medical Association (CMA), which represents more than 86,000 doctors across the country. The organization has undertaken a major campaign to address the problems.
Investigations into the Ontario cyberbullying cases have been overseen by the college’s Inquiries, Complaints and Reports Committee. The most serious outcome of such probes is disciplinary hearings.
The three doctors facing disciplinary hearings are all alleged to have sent “offensive, objectionable and inappropriate communications” to Walley during the run-up to a failed ratification vote on a tentative contract between the province and OMA in August last year. They include Dr. Troy Christie (Chris) Drone, a Kitchener anesthesiologist.
A Star feature on cyberbullying among doctors, published in February, revealed that a southwestern Ontario anesthesiologist sent this email to Walley: “You are a c---. Crash and burn as you deserve to do!! This will be a NO vote and the end of the OMA. Sincerely, F--- YOU and the OMA!!!”
The Star has since been told by two sources that Drone authored the email. He works at Grand River Hospital, St. Mary’s General Hospital and Anesthesia Associates, all in Kitchener. He did not respond to numerous requests for an interview. Walley declined to comment. The other two doctors facing hearings are:
Michael Clarence Tjandrawidjaja, a cardiologist and internal medicine specialist at the William Osler Health System.
David Goodwin, medical director of the R.H. Lawson Eventide LongTerm Care Home in Niagara Falls.
Neither doctor responded to interview requests.
Dates for the three disciplinary hearings have yet to be set.
Six doctors have been sanctioned with regulatory penalties, including Oswaldo Ramirez, a family physician who works at Stevenson Memorial Hospital in Alliston and at the Nobleton Medical and Walk-In Clinic.
Ramirez acted “intemperate” by posting “profanity-laced, derogatory comments about a colleague” on a Facebook discussion group for doctors, a complaints committee decision on his case states.
The comments were directed at Berger, who had authored a Jan. 27, 2017, letter to the editor in the Star, criticizing a group of doctors planning to overthrow the board of the OMA and threatening work action.
Ramirez, participating in an attack on Berger by many doctors on the Facebook forum, wrote: “Cono hijo de puta anda a chupar Berger. Sorry. Couldn’t hold that rant back. I revert to my native tongue when mad.”
The post was cited in the earlier Star feature. After much consultation, it was translated as: “P---y, you son of a wh--e. Why don’t you go and suck Berger.”
There are a number of Spanish dialects with slightly varying translations and Ramirez told the college that in his native Ecuadorian Spanish, his post actually means: “F---! Son of a b---h! Go get drunk (Berger).”
(Names of those attacked are omitted from CPSO decisions. In Ramirez’s case, there are two separate — but very similar — decisions resulting from two investigations, one sparked by a public complaint and the other by the Star feature.)
The college was not impressed with Ramirez’s defence:
“The committee was troubled by Dr. Ramirez’s response. Although he apologized for his ‘rant,’ he did not view it as unprofessional . . . The committee believes Dr. Ramirez disparaged a colleague by directing obscenities at a named individual, regardless of which interpretation to English one prefers.”
Ramirez damaged the reputation of the profession, the decision states.
Ramirez told the college he had been participating in a highly charged political discussion online and that the rants were not intended as a direct attack against anyone. They were a momentary expression of frustration in a heated exchange in which colleagues were maligned and verbally threatened, he said.
A summary of his defence also states:
“He deeply regrets that a private conversation amongst physicians was secretly leaked to a reporter. He does not engage or condone bullying. Now, however, he is the recipient of bullying comments from people he has never known as a consequence of the article smearing physicians conversing in a private forum.”
(The Facebook forum, which now appears to have been deactivated, had more than 10,000 people on it. Its administrators warned that it was not private and that there were people other than doctors on it.)
Ramirez has apologized to the board of directors at Stevenson Memorial Hospital where he works, the committee wrote. He had served as chief of staff at the hospital until a year ago.
He has been ordered to appear before a panel of the committee to be cautioned. He must complete an education-and-remediation course and must write summaries of four documents about professionalism of physicians and their use of social media, as well as an essay on the same topic. Berger declined to comment. The same disposition was meted out to radiologist Dr. Mark Prieditis for this email he sent to Walley around the time of the failed ratification vote: “(Virginia): Are you serious? F--- You! Mark.”
The CPSO’s description of the case does not reveal exactly what Prieditis was referring to, only that he was responding to a mass email blast from the OMA.
Radiologists were vociferous opponents of the tentative fee deal, while Walley and the OMA had urged doctors to support it.
The committee wrote that Prieditis’s comment was especially concerning given his senior roles in the profession. He is the president of the Ontario Association of Radiologists and, until recently, served as chair of the CPSO’s Independent Health Facilities Task Force.
Prieditis works as a diagnostic radiologist at the Scarborough and Rouge Hospital, Lakeridge Health and Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare.
He told the college that he thought he had sent his email into cyberspace — not to a real person — when he replied to the OMA email.
“He was shocked and embarrassed to learn that the former president of the OMA had received his email; it was never his intention that she would receive it. He immediately emailed the physician to apologize and explain his actions,” states the decision, describing context provided by Prieditis.
Asked for an interview, Prieditis responded through his lawyer that he had “no comment.”
Dr. Sharon Straus, vice-chair of the department of medicine at the University of Toronto, said she is pleased to see the CPSO is taking bullying seriously.
Straus said there is much research — including some by her — showing that harassment and discrimination hurt patient care, contribute to physician burnout and mental-health problems, and drive some out of the profession.
The CMA has been trying to address the bullying problem by improving medical professionalism. It held a series of town hall meetings on the issue across the country this year; its annual general meeting last summer was organized around the theme of “unifying the medical profession;” it has developed a draft Charter of Shared Values and it is working on creating a new code of ethics and professionalism. The OMA would not comment on the CPSO decisions.
A source familiar with the goingson at the OMA told the Star that efforts were underway last year to create a new policy to address abusive treatment, including cyberbullying, of staff and elected representatives.
But some doctors objected to the idea and it has since been watered down, the source charged.
Asked about the status of policy, OMA spokesperson Cal MacLellan said the organization is now taking steps toward “adopting (a) framework which would help guide member interactions.”