FIRST, DO NO HARMWatch the entire documentary online (runs appox 41:30)
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THE STORY
In March, 2004 the Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario announced that it was revoking the license of Dr. Errol Wai-Ping, a gynecologist accused of mistreating, misdiagnosing and castrating dozens of women who were his patients.
DEFINITION OF AN ADVERSE EVENT
An adverse event is an unintended injury or complication that results in disability at the time of discharge, death or prolonged hospital stay and that is caused by health care management rather than by the patient's underlying disease process
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This announcement signaled the end of one of Canada's most serious and longest running cases of medical error. It came on the heels of the Canadian Adverse Events Study which revealed one in thirteen Canadians is harmed by the medical care that is supposed to help them.
The fifth estate's documentary First, Do No Harm examines the story of Dr. Wai-Ping, the cases of some of his patients, and investigates the official process that allowed Dr. Wai-Ping to continue practicing almost a decade after complaints had first been made about his competence as a surgeon.
"Clearly this wasn't a good doc having a bad day. This was a pattern of conduct that frightened me because knowing what I know, the little I know about infection, I wonder what could possibly happen to somebody else that didn't know." - Nicole Harder
One of those patients is Nicole Harder of Cobourg, Ontario. In 1995, when Nicole was 31, she complained to both the Ajax-Pickering hospital and the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario about Dr. Wai-Ping, claiming that he performed an unnecessary hysterectomy and causing a potentially life-threatening infection.
For seven years, Nicole Harder fought the Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons and the hospital where he worked to reveal what, if any, measures were being taken to investigate her complaint or discipline Dr. Wai-Ping. She learned that the College referred her complaint to a confidential committee called Quality Assurance. Although the proceedings of this committee are kept secret, Harder obtained documents that showed the QA committee determined there were "significant" breaches in Dr. Wai-Ping's standard of care. For that, he was ordered to take a remedial communications course. Eventually Harder settled a malpractice suit against Dr. Wai-Ping.
In the past serious complaints about a doctor's clinical care usually went to a disciplinary board, which has the power to take a doctor's license away. In most provinces disciplinary hearings are open to the public.
FIRST, DO NO HARM
It is a widely held misconception that "First, Do No Harm" comes from the Hippocratic Oath. Although the oath expresses a similar sentiment it does not contain those words.In fact, Hippocrates came closest to issuing this directive in his treatise Epidemics, in an axiom that reads, "As to diseases, make a habit of two things -- to help, or at least, to do no harm."
The fifth estate's investigation reveals that across Canada there is a new trend to retrain doctors, not blame them. In Ontario it's called Quality Assurance. The disturbing thing is, everything that happens in Quality Assurance is secret. The College received at least 12 complaints about Dr. Wai-Ping between 1994 and 2001. In all of that time he had a spotless record so far as any patients could find out and there were no restrictions on his surgery.
Dr. Wai-Ping continued to perform surgery until a Toronto Star investigation made the matter public in 2001. Weeks later, the College finally referred the case to the Disciplinary Committee and Dr. Wai-Ping was forced to resign.
More than 300 of Dr. Wai-Ping's patients are now launching a class action lawsuit against the doctor, the College of Physicians and Surgeons and Rouge Valley Ajax-Pickering Hospital.
Read the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario discipline hearing on Dr. Wai-Ping
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