A cardiologist working out of Montreal's Sacré-Coeur Hospital has been fined $2,500, and given a one-month ban from practicing, after his professional order found him guilty of falsifying prescriptions for his personal gain.
For two years, Dr. Michel Doucet was found to have given himself five prescriptions for back pain medications like Celebrex, Topomax and Empracet — by forging the name of one of his colleagues at the hospital.
At his disciplinary hearing, Dr. Doucet cited overwork, due to the most recent health reforms brought in by former Liberal health minister Gaétan Barrette, as a major factor in doing what he did. He told the disciplinary committee that his department was chronically short-staffed, and that he had been forced to work on-call at any one of three different hospitals, while at the same time having to teach med students.
In 2015, Dr. Doucet sought treatment for lower back pain from the colleague, who prescribed him the medications. Over the following two years, several prescriptions had been written for the medications — but by September 2017, a pharmacist noticed that some of those prescriptions appeared to have been forged.
Dr. Doucet went on to suggest he didn't have a family doctor at the time, and didn't have the time to make an appointment with one.
He also says he has learned from his mistakes.