Some doctors need education in sexual rules, study finds

19% of discipline cases are repeat offences

A Toronto researcher, concerned about the number of Canadian doctors disciplined for sexual misconduct, says more education is needed on sexual boundaries.

“Sexual misconduct is clearly a breach of trust. Medical students and physicians taking continuing education need more training about sexual boundaries,” said Dr. Chaim Bell, an associate professor at the University of Toronto’s medical school and a staff physician at Mount Sinai Hospital.

Findings of a study he led show that doctors are disciplined for sexual misconduct more than any other violation.

The study, published last October in Open Medicine, found that 20 per cent of the 852 violations for which Canadian doctors were disciplined between 2000 and 2009 were for sexual misconduct.

That was followed by standard-ofcare violations, which accounted for 19 per cent of disciplinary actions. This could include, for example, not ordering the right test or not following patients up properly.

The third most frequent violation was unprofessional conduct, which accounted for 16 per cent of disciplinary actions. This could include, for example, using inappropriate language.

Stories in Wednesday’s Star highlighted the cases of three doctors who face hearings before the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario for allegations of sexual impropriety, abuse and misconduct. One of the cases involves a doctor who previously had his licence suspended for nine months after pleading no contest to an allegation he had sexually abused a female patient.

Bell said doctors who have faced disciplinary action should be subject to increased monitoring.

His study found that 51 physicians committed 64 repeat offences, or 19 per cent of the total offences. Seven of them had to be disciplined three times and two had been disciplined four times.

While the study did not break out the findings by province, Bell said the national results are reflective of results in Ontario. (The study did not include findings from the three territories, where such information is not publicly available.)

Atotal of 606 Canadian physicians were disciplined by their provincial medical licensing authorities in the time period studied, a number representing less than 1 per cent of all physicians. Of those disciplined, 62 per cent were family doctors, 14 per cent were psychiatrists and 9 per cent were surgeons.

The majority were men (92 per cent) who had practised medicine for a long time (average 28.9 years).