Longtime Saskatoon doctor says he's being forced into retirement

A doctor who has practised for decades in Saskatchewan says he's being forced to retire.

“I view it as punishment, frankly,” Dr. B.J. Fern said of having to advise his patients he will shut down his practice at the end of March.

Fern, now in his late 80s, has been in Saskatchewan since 1966. In 1997, he became the province's only doctor to prescribe methadone, now a relatively commonplace treatment used to wean people off of addiction to street opioids.

Fern said he's had “many encounters” with regulators at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Saskatchewan (CPSS) about his opioid work over the years, while admitting some of his methods have been “unorthodox,” such as prescribing morphine in some situations when methadone wasn't effective.

Fern said he respects the need for a regulatory body, given the sensitive nature of a doctor's work and the potential to cause harm, but he objects to how the CPSS has dealt with him.

He told Postmedia News that his latest brush with the regulator came after a site visit from a doctor tasked with evaluating his clinic.

Fern said he had previously digitized some 20,000 paper patient records, but in the process failed to follow templates set out by the CPSS. He noted he also refuses to use American-made software for electronic medical records, as these generally store data on U.S. servers, where information could be the subject of demands for access by the American government.

The visiting evaluator “was not impressed” with the record-keeping system, Fern said.

The record-keeping issue was the only specific issue Fern said he could point to as the reason for a meeting a few weeks after the site evaluation, where he alleges a CPSS official told him he would have to discontinue his practice.

Fern said he was told there was “a safety issue,” but that he was not given any specifics.

“I still don't know what it is that's not safe,” he said, noting he would have liked an opportunity to “challenge” or “rectify” the concern.

Fern said he agreed to retire by March 31. While he expressed some regret at not being entirely familiar with the CPSS'S process and the ability to appeal, he noted it's now too late to try to reverse the decision, as letters have already been sent to his patients informing them he was, in his words, “being retired.”

“You can't turn that clock backwards,” he said.

Nevertheless, he wishes the CPSS had pursued other options, he added. He said he was willing to submit to having his cognition tested, noting he aced a previous battery of tests administered five years ago after he recovered from a subdural hematoma.

Given his advanced age, Fern acknowledged it was “reasonable” to think he might look to retire.

“Of course, I could have dropped dead; I'm entitled to — I'm old enough. It hasn't happened yet,” he said with a chuckle.

CPSS associate registrar Bryan Salte said in an email that the regulator publicly releases information only in cases where it lays a charge of unprofessional conduct, or where there is a “compelling reason” to alert the public.

“I can advise that Dr. Fern was not required to wind down his practice. After discussing the concerns about his practice with him he agreed to retire,” Salte added.