The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Saskatchewan is examining the issue of physician misconduct and how to deal with it.
“There is a recognition that there is a disparity between how the various colleges deal with sexual misconduct about physicians - what the penalties are and what the responses are in a situation when a patient says that a physician engages in sexual misconduct with them, so with all of those things happening, colleges decided it was important to think about these issues and develop an approach,” associate registrar Bryan Salte said.
The years 2016 to 2019 have each seen 13 completed cases against doctors, an increase over previous years, according to the college’s annual discipline summary.
The college says it will be looking into different ways of dealing with misconduct penalties and how they will be defined – in particular, better defining sexual misconduct.
The college says this is a problem across the country and that it wants to establish appropriate penalties for misconduct which are more in line with other provinces.
Current penalties range from taking an ethics course to losing a license.
Changes are expected to be made official by the end of November.
