A Yorkton general surgeon who has been practicing medicine for more than 60 years says he is upset at his recent treatment by the Sunrise Health Region administration.
Dr. Ivan Daunt, 83, had his physician privileges reduced this year in a manner that he argues was "arbitrary and even irrational." The doctor no longer has approval to perform a number of relatively simple procedures such as abscess incisions, which he considers an inconvenience to his patients and "a high insult" to a surgeon of his experience.
"These are small procedures which I am thoroughly capable of doing," the doctor says.
Daunt also claims to have been pressured to retire by members of the health region's senior administration.
The surgeon, who has been among the health region's most outspoken physicians in the past, says his case is one more incident in a pattern of mismanagement and unfair treatment that has been driving good doctors out of the region for years.
Daunt's complaint stems from the review of privileges which all physicians are subjected to on a yearly basis. Physicians in Saskatchewan must apply for annual approval of all medical procedures they wish to perform in health region facilities. Factors such as experience, training, and skills maintenance are considered during the approval process.
The first priority of the annual review is patient safety, says Sunrise director of communications Sharon Tropin, but the system provides "checks and balances" to ensure physicians receives fair consideration. Recommendations on each application are given by the region's senior medical health officer and two committees staffed by medical practitioners before 小蓝视频 put to the final vote of the Sunrise Regional Health Authority.
The process is governed by the health region's Practitioner Staff Bylaws, which Tropin says are consistent with bylaws across the province developed in consultation with the Saskatchewan Medical Association and the College of Physicians and Surgeons.
But Dr. Daunt believes the review process for surgeons in Sunrise has too little representation by his surgeon peers and too much influence by non-surgeons, in particular the senior medical health officer.
"Now, if we'd had an informal meeting of the four surgeons, I would have abided by what they decided. But because I have my Canadian Specialist Certification, I think they would have said, 'Go ahead.'"
The health region's clinical chief of surgery is among the 21 physicians on the review committees. Daunt says the chief is a good surgeon, but as a relatively new arrival to Canada he "doesn't fully understand the development of medical services in Saskatchewan." Daunt believes the chief of surgery should have had the final say in his case but instead deferred to the recommendations of the medical health officer.
Now nearly 84, Dr. Daunt wryly acknowledges that he is "over the hill and far away." Due to his advancing age and a spell of vertigo in the operating room six years ago, the surgeon has voluntarily given up many of the more arduous and lengthy procedures he used to perform. But he worries that the latest reduction of his privileges will lead to excessive wait times for basic surgeries and could cause trouble for patients in emergency situations.
"That might work in a big centre, but in Yorkton you have to be a bit more flexible. Otherwise we'd never do anything."
Patients Dr. Daunt had planned to operate upon before Christmas will now have to wait until spring to see another doctor, he says.
"I never do anything I don't feel fully competent to do. That's been my guideline."
