Doctors call for public inquiry into intimidation

The Alberta Medical Association is joining the call for a full and open inquiry into the issue of intimidation of doctors who speak up for their patients.

"There are concerns that, when speaking out, physicians may not feel they will be heard or may fear negative consequences," wrote AMA president Dr. Patrick White in a letter to fellow doctors Thursday.

"Personally, I have no doubt that the first instinct of physicians is always to stand up for patients, but the fact that these perceptions are out there at all is a source for concern, while the assertions related to intimidation are disturbing."

CBC News spoke with a Edmonton doctor Wednesday who stepped forward to publicly complain about a "climate of intimidation" which he said nearly cost him privileges to practise medicine after he was secretly accused of mental instability.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/story/2011/03/17/edmonton-ama-intimidation-review.html

Doctor goes public with allegations of intimidation

An Edmonton doctor has stepped forward to publicly complain about a "climate of intimidation" which he says nearly cost him privileges to practise medicine after he was secretly accused of mental instability.

"It was a threat to my privileges, a threat to my livelihood, and it took a form of mobbing in the workplace," Dr. Abilio Nunes told CBC Wednesday.

Alberta Health Services only backed down in 2009 after a Court of Queen's Bench judge ordered Caritas Health Group to release the secret email to Nunes that contained what the court confirmed were unsupported allegations of mental instability.

Nunes, an anesthesiologist at Grey Nuns Hospital in Mill Woods, says his problems began after he complained to a surgeon about not being given sufficient information for surgery on an emergency patient. The surgeon, in turn, complained to the head of surgery, who took the issue up the management ladder.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/story/2011/03/16/edmonton-doctor-nunes.html

Doctors. Ft. Mac. Cancer.

that's the hospital we use.

I'm glad Dr. Nunes spoke out. I hope there is a public inquiry.

The president of the Calgary and Area Physicians Association says doctors in Alberta are working in an atmosphere of fear and intimidation.

Dr. Lloyd Maybaum said he wrote some internal emails to colleagues in 2008 to try to save the psychiatric treatment wing at a new south Calgary hospital.

Someone leaked one of the emails to the media.

Maybaum said he then received a letter from a health executive accusing him of making inflammatory and inaccurate statements.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/story/2011/03/18/calgary-doctor-maybaum-health-care-intimidation.html