Toronto family physician Dr. George Williams Otto lost his doctor’s licence after receiving a criminal record for participating in a drug trafficking scheme. .“Dr. Otto committed professional misconduct by being found guilty of an offence relevant to his suitability to practice medicine, fentanyl trafficking, and by engaging in disgraceful, dishonourable and unprofessional conduct through breaching his bail conditions,” said an Ontario Physicians and Surgeons Discipline Tribunal (OPSDT) panel in a ruling. .“The appropriate penalty for this misconduct is the revocation of his certificate of registration.” .The ruling said Otto wrote unnecessary prescriptions of fentanyl for his patients for profit. It said he did so amid the opioid crisis. .A jury convicted him of trafficking in fentanyl, and he was sentenced to 14 years in prison. He violated his bail conditions while awaiting trial by breaking his promise not to prescribe certain narcotics. .After sentencing and while his conviction was under appeal, he disappeared, breaching his release conditions. He did not participate in the proceeding despite proper notification. .The OPSDT would not be issuing a reprimand, as he is no longer practicing. He has been ordered to pay $6,000 in costs. .The scheme saw Otto prescribe about 4,000 patches of fentanyl not for medical purposes from 2015 to 2016. Patients were paid to fill the prescriptions at a pharmacy owned by another participant involved. .The patients were handed the drugs, which would be taken by end users. Otto expected to be paid $1,500 per prescription and would receive a large amount of money because of the quantities involved. .One of his bail conditions was he could not prescribe any narcotics listed under Schedule One of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. He filed 798 prescriptions for Schedule One narcotics for a little more than one year. .Members commit professional misconduct if they have been found guilty of an offence relevant to their suitability to practice under the Regulated Health Professionals Act. The OPSDT panel said it is “self-evident that misusing his prescribing privileges to traffic in opioids is relevant to Dr. Otto’s suitability to practice medicine.”.The ruling went on to say Otto’s failure to respect his bail condition prohibiting him from prescribing Schedule One narcotics is an act or omission relevant to the practice of medicine regarded by members as disgraceful, dishonourable, or unprofessional. It added the bail conditions protected the public, and he agreed to respect them. .The tribunal identified four principal factors applied in determining penalty: the seriousness of the misconduct, any discipline history, the physician’s actions since the misconduct, and their personal circumstances..Otto committed a serious crime. Its effect was to contribute to the opioid crisis by increasing the supply of illegal drugs available to people with addictions. .The seriousness of the misconduct would lead to revocation, even without prior discipline history. This is his third finding of misconduct..The third and fourth factors are irrelevant, because there is no evidence of steps he has taken to address his misconduct or personal circumstances which might explain it. Rather than trying to address what he did, he disappeared..Its conclusion is consistent with other cases where physicians have trafficked narcotics and had their licences revoked. .The panel said Otto “broke the law and put lives at risk for his own financial gain.” .“This is among the most serious misconduct a physician can commit,” it said. .This ordeal comes after the Ontario Divisional Court upheld a decision from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO) in restricting family physician Dr. Crystal Luchkiw’s medical licence in October. .READ MORE: Court sides with Ontario medical regulator in suspending doctor’s licence.“For the reasons that follow, I am satisfied the decision of the ICRC (Inquiries, Complaints, and Reports of the Committee) to suspend Dr. Luchkiw’s certificate of registration was reasonable,” said Divisional Court Judge William S. Chalmers. .Luchkiw is facing two investigations from the CPSO. The investigations were commenced after it obtained information she issued a COVID-19 vaccine exemption to a high-risk immunocompromised patient, did not follow infection prevention and control practices, and spread misinformation about the virus.
