Gynecologist’s licence revoked for 2 years

Regulatory board calls doctor’s remarks to patient lecherous, sexual and vulgar

A Montreal gynecologist has been stripped of his licence for two years for making “vulgar and inappropriate” sexual remarks while examining a patient.

Gynecologist and obstetrician Allan Climan, who obtained his licence in 1983, was also fined $15,000 for accepting more than $18,000 in gifts from another doctor while referring patients to his ultrasound clinic.

Climan has mostly practised out of his clinic in Côte-des-Neiges and at the Jewish General Hospital. The Quebec College of Physicians made its sanctions against him public on Wednesday.

The complaint about the sexual remarks dates back to 2015, and comes from a woman who was 10 weeks pregnant when she met with Climan at his offices.

“What’s a pretty thing like you doing in a place like this?” the patient said Climan asked her. She explained she had experienced complications resulting from a caesarean section during her first pregnancy and was now considering vaginal delivery.

She testified before the college’s disciplinary board that Climan responded by telling the woman her sex life would never be the same, then turned to her husband and said: “It won’t feel as good for you anymore.”

The woman said the inappropriate remarks continued throughout the meeting, including Climan telling her, “You have a great little body. I can’t wait to examine you and I’m sure you have a beautiful vagina.”

She also said Climan started the examination without warning, at which point she tensed up. He then told her that might make her partner say, “Oh my god, oh baby I love you,” during sexual relations, but that it made it difficult for him to do his examination.

The couple left the appointment in anger and brought the complaint to the college.

The college’s syndic argued Climan’s comments were “lecherous, inappropriate, sexual and vulgar” and made worse by the fact some of them occurred during a gynecological exam when the patient was naked.

Testifying before the disciplinary committee, Climan said he regrets his comments and knows “he talks too much and that words are a powerful tool.”

He argued he sees about 140 patients a week and delivers between 250 and 280 babies a year, so having his licence suspended would greatly affect his patients.

As for the patient in question, Climan said he could tell the woman was nervous during the meeting and he was trying to lighten the mood with humour. He said he now sticks to medical explanations and “avoids talking about sexual relations.”

Though Climan has no previous disciplinary history, the committee was presented with documents showing other patients have complained about his behaviour.

In 2010, a woman who is also a physician wrote to the syndic about Climan’s out-of-place comments during child delivery, alleging he said, “Oh my god. We are sewing you up so good, we are going to turn you back into a virgin.”

“Here I was a patient in the most compromising position for a female: legs up in stirrups, having just painfully delivered and worried that I was possibly hemorrhaging,” the woman wrote, qualifying the comment as “flagrantly offensive” and degrading.

Another patient complaint was from 2018, at which point Climan already knew he was being investigated for the 2015 incident.

The disciplinary committee “considers that (Climan’s) use of abusive language with patients is documented by his professional record on more than one occasion,” the decision says. “That’s an aggravating factor that must be properly weighed.”