Dirty Deeds Done By Docs

It is common knowledge throughout the Mushkegowuk Territory that I had worked in Peawanuck, Attawapiskat, Kashechewan, Fort Albany, Moosonee and Moose Factory from 2005 until 2015.

From 2010 to 2018, I had irrefutable knowledge of misconduct within the hospital’s physician staff, that a reasonable person would describe as egregious, obscene, even nefarious. The misdeeds:

• Put the hospital's patients in danger, caused serious harms and sadly caused some premature deaths,

• Took back modern day Treaty Rights as promised to them in the Weeneebayko Area Health Integration Framework Agreement, and

• Disgraced the medical profession.

I took decisive action to address this misconduct in efforts to restore order within the physician corps and improve the quantity and quality of patient care.

In taking action, I obeyed all provisions found in various hospital rules and regulations and in accordance with professional guidelines and various health laws. Many senior level administrators were aware of the wrongs but offered little support and effort to me to stop it. Despite fierce opposition there was much success at ending most of the anarchy that ran rampant within his physician staff by the end of my tenure.

The next Chief of Staff, Dr. Gordon Green, was oriented in a detailed manner as to all of the misconduct. He took a different path in the management of the Medical Staff which is described in detail at the end of this article. I will leave it to the reader to decide if this was or was not beneficial to the Mushkegowuk people in need of healthcare.

These all happened and I have documentary evidence and/or witnesses that can corroborate each and every allegation. Of note, numbers are assigned rather than names, to the physicians, as I have grown weary of litigation. But if a reader would like the evidence that speaks to any of the incidents described below, they can and will be provided upon request.

(i) Sexual boundary violations with a patient, namely Dr. 1. (ii) Boundary violations with medical learners, namely Dr. 2. (iii) OHIP fraud of $2.5 million, namely Dr. 1. (iv) Misuse of hospital monies, examples include: a) Submitting $2500 receipt for a Louis Vuitton purse as a moving expense, namely Dr. 3. b) Submitting a $2400 invoice for a personal airplane rental as a travel expense, namely, Dr. 5, a practice that he had engaged in for almost three decades. When Dr. Waddell ended this practice, Dr. 5 immediately stopped providing medical services to the hospital's patients and made no efforts to find a replacement. c) Extreme use of hospital equipment and supplies for personal reasons, namely Dr. 6. d) Lobbying the hospital to get ‘his people’ onto the hospital charter for self-serving reasons. In trying this doctor 7 was trying to bump your Elders, sick and fallen off of air travel, thus delegating them to long bus and train rides back to their home communities. As to the self-serving reason, to bring along a drug representative to pay him $1500 to give the members of the Medical Staff a drug talk hosted at the Eco-Lodge. (v) Practicing medicine while impaired by illness, namely Dr. 2. (vi) Dr. 6 ignoring hospital policy and delivering a high risk pregnancy (twins) at Moose Factory Hospital. All of this led twin B to suffer significant and prolonged respiratory distress necessitating a medical evacuation. vii) Practicing medicine out scope of the doctor's training, namely Dr. 8, by resuming obstetrics after a 30 year absence that placed a newborn in harm's way and injured the mother on his very first delivery at the hospital, and failing to report this change of scope to the College. (viii) Tampering with medical records, namely Dr. 9, that included their destruction to cover-up for her failure to diagnose a myocardial infarction and treat it properly. (viii) Disregarding hospital policies that endangered patients. They include: a) Dr. 10, who ordered two medical evacuations from coastal communities to an unheated and unmanned airport hanger, rather than transfer them to a southern hospital as mandated by an emergency hospital policy. b) Dr. 2, who delivered a baby by herself without another physician being present to care for the newborn in violation of hospital policy as she felt the other doctor stole her boyfriend. (ix) Inappropriate prescribing of large doses of Vitamin D, namely Dr. 11, for a plethora of health ailments that are not treated with this vitamin. (x) Abandonment of patients, Dr. 2, Dr. 5 and Dr. 10 and threats to abandon patients, namely Dr. 10, all in efforts to force the hospital to acquiesce to their selfish demands. (xi) Failing to cooperate with the Infectious Disease nurse and Occupational Health nurse while infected with a multi-drug resistant infectious agent, namely Dr. 2. (xiii) Ordering an unnecessary medical evacuation, namely Dr. 11. The helicopter dispatched crashed shortly after takeoff that resulted in the unnecessary deaths of all four men onboard the aircraft. (xiv) Failing to disclose significant facts in the application for hospital privileges, namely Dr. 1, to deceive the hospital's Medical Advisory Committee ("MAC"), and knowingly permit this oversight to happen, namely then Chief of Staff from 2010 - 2012, Dr. 12. (xv) Harassment (extreme bullying) of nursing staff, namely Dr. 4, and of the Medical Staff, namely Dr. 4, Dr. 10 and Dr. 14. xvi) Manipulation of the physician contract to minimize professional services rendered to the hospital's patients, namely Dr. 3, Dr. 4 and Dr. 10. xvii) Markedly reducing coastal call visits by doctors in knowing violation of a signed agreement between the various Territory's First Nation Chiefs, a Mayor, the Ontario Ministry of Health & Long Term Care, Health Canada and the CEO of the Weeneebayko Health Ahtuskaywin, that became WAHA in October 2010, namely Dr. 14.

xviii) Grooming a fresh doctor to become the next Chief of Staff despite little clinical experience to do so coupled with an active substance abuse disorder. There was a predictable relapse and the doctor was permanently pulled out of the Territory by an independent arm of the College of Physicians & Surgeons of Ontario.

xix) There were multiple cases of patients diagnosed as 'drug seekers' when in fact they suffered from very painful diseases. For example, a fractured pelvis, another had a compartment syndrome and sustained serious permanent damage because of the delay in diagnosis, another had a 4 mm kidney stone impacted in his ureter-bladder junction and another had a major failure of a knee implant. That's just naming a few.

xx) Unprofessional lab follow up best described as simply signing off on an abnormal lab result without making a diagnosis or offering treatment, with the order to repeat the test in a month. In one case, this was done over a dozen times until I looked into its cause and instituted a proper treatment and follow up plan.

xxi) Repeatedly diagnosing a patient as suffering from Alzheimer's dementia by a series of doctors when they clearly had another obvious cause to explain the symptoms which was easily treatable.

xxii) Repeatedly diagnosing a patient as mentally deficient for decades despite the fact their only problem was a severe speech abnormality. I discovered this by looking at the patient's Bible that was well used with careful highlighting and beautiful penmenship.

xxiii) Not scheduling a physician not to work in Attawapiskat First Nation because she felt the patients there were too violent.

xxiv) Amongst many others

None of this misconduct was an honest mistake. Instead it was knowingly done in a manner that a reasonable physician would see as dangerous and/or unprofessional and/or imcompetent.

None of this misconduct was a result of an old hospital with old equipment but 100 percent due to poor, imoral, unethical, reckless, unprofessional, self-serving purposes. In other words, a $1.8 billion new health campus does not address this physician misconduct issues.

Next Chief of Staff's (2013 - 18) response to the what is described above

Dr. 2 quit the hospital when forced to address the many concerns that Dr. Waddell and other members of his Medical Staff had with her. She was hired back to the hospital in 2015.

Dr. 4 , a quintessential bully, quit the hospital in 2013 only to be hired back in September 2014.

Dr. 5 was promoted at Queen's University Medical School to Assistant Dean in charge of post-graduate medical education. In response, the new Chief of Staff, the CEO, the Director of Education and others at the hospital re-engaged with Dr. 5.

Dr. 9 had her locum privileges upgraded to Active Medical Staff as required by the law. Despite her victory, her contract with the hospital should have been terminated by way of a provision found within it for her egregious misconduct and unrepentant ways.

Dr. 10 was brought back onto the Medical Staff despite a litany of significant misconducts. Shortly after being brought back, Dr. 10 ignored hospital policy that caused grievous and irreparable injuries to a newborn child.

Dr. 11 was permitted to prescribe large doses of Vitamin D to patients without any medical reason to do so, despite Dr. Waddell's warning that this had been a problem in the past.

Dr. 12 was hired on as a telephone consult physician.

All doctors on the Medical Staff scheduled for charting days in the physician schedule despite the fact that virtually every other doctor in Ontario does this at the time of the patient encounter. Chief of Staff assigned 2 days a week to conduct administrative duties despite a staff size of 12 full-time equivalent family doctors.

He sought out advice from many of the above described doctors who had committed egregious acts of misconduct or incompetence, and used their opinions to improve their lives by decreasing their workload

Dr. John Waddell, M.D.

Forever Friend of the People

References

1. Sworn testimony of Dr. Waddell at Waddell vs WAHA MAC December 14, 2017

2. MAC Minutes 2010 - 2015

3. Physician Schedules 2010 - 2015

4. Human Resources files of Dr. 1, Dr. 2 & Dr. 9

5. Various emails from Dr. Waddell to the Chief of Staff June 2013 - August 2018

6. Various Medical Records

7. CPSO Discipline Committee Decision with Reasons

8. Ontario Superior Court Records

9. Letters of Complaint

10. Application for Privileges at WAHA

11. Physician Help Program

12. Amongst others

Witnesses

1. Dr. Lindsay Sit

2. Dr. Elizabeth Blackmore

3. Dr. Donald Pond, consulting OB

4. Nurse Sandy Cheechoo

5. Nurse Melanie Phelps

6. Translator Francis Hookimaw

7. Ms. Rose Blackned

8. Ms. Midge Rouse, Patient Client Services for WAHA at Hotel Dieu Hospital

9. Dr. Shauna Johnson, OB KGH

10. Dr. Tim Labelle

11. Nurse Tom McLeod

12. Nurse Nancy Sloan

13. Nurse Bob - Occupational Health & Safety

14. Nurse Elaine Jeffries

15. Dr. Dennis Dahl

16. VP HR Kelly Reuben

17. Chief Quality Officer Caroline Lidstone-Jones

18. CEO Bernie Schmidt

19. CNO Rachel Cull

20. Dr. Michael Gibson

21. Amongst others