Medical resident sanctioned after giving injection without consent
A local medical resident has been sanctioned for professional misconduct for giving a person who wasn’t his patient an injection of a hormonal medication in a social setting without consent.
The College of Physicians and Surgeons has determined Dr. Etienne Archambault can apply for reinstatement of his licence to practise medicine, having served a period of suspension pending his disciplinary hearing, that was ordered in October 2021.
First, however, Archambault must pay for and complete a course on professional ethics approved by the college. He must also pay the costs of the hearing.
Archambault pleaded guilty to professional misconduct by performing without consent a professional service for which consent is required. An adjudication tribunal of the college released its decision in Archambault’s case last month, and the college provided a summary of it to reporters Monday.
According to an agreed statement of facts, Archambault met the complainant — who is not identified in the summary — at a recreation centre in February 2020, and shared information with them about the use of medications in an athletic context.
In a social setting in March 2020, Archambault gave the complainant an injection of a combination of hormonal therapeutic medications. The complainant was not aware of the specifics of the injection before receiving it, and asked Archambault for more information the next day.
“The complainant was aware that Dr. Archambault was a medical resident. Dr. Archambault and the complainant did not have a physician-patient relationship,” college CEO and registrar Dr. Tanis Adey wrote in the summary.