On August 9, 2018 the Inquiries, Complaints and Reports Committee (ICRC) referred a matter involving Samir Shah to the Discipline Committee for a hearing.
The hearing took place on April 4, 2019. The panel of the Discipline Committee issued a decision on the finding on April 4, 2019, on the penalty on April 4, 2020 and on costs on September 16, 2019. The decision on penalty was appealed on June 5, 2019. The appeal was heard and dismissed by the divisional court on October 7, 2020.
After having considered all of the evidence, the panel found Mr. Shah to have committed the following acts of professional misconduct:
- paragraph 1 (Failed to maintain the standards of practice of the profession),
- paragraph 14 (Contravened by act or omission, the Physiotherapy Act, 1991, the Regulated Health Professions Act, 1991 or the regulations under either of those Acts),
- paragraph 18 (Engaged in conduct or performed an act relevant to the practice of the profession that having regard to all circumstances would reasonably be regarded by members as disgraceful, dishonorable or unprofessional) and
- paragraph 28 (Signed or Issued a document containing a statement that the member knows or ought to know contains a false or misleading statement)
Finding
At the conclusion of the hearing the panel found that Mr. Shah had committed several act(s) of professional misconduct and they ordered the following penalty.
- Requiring the Member to receive a reprimand at a date to be determined by the Registrar
- Serve a suspension for a period of eighteen (18) months
- Practice as a PTA during his suspension only under the supervision of an approved registered member of the College who is a physiotherapist in Mr. Shah’s practice location. The supervising physiotherapist must be pre-approved by the College prior to Mr. Shah providing services as a PTA
Mr. Shah is required to pay costs to the College in the amount of $6,000.
As a part of the penalty the Committee also issued a reprimand which read as follows:
Mr. Shah, you have been found to have committed an act of professional misconduct by a panel of this committee for a third time, an unprecedented situation for any physiotherapist in Ontario. It is disappointing that your actions have resulted in this profession having a member with such a distinction.\
Your misconduct was of a profoundly serious nature and it has damaged the public’s trust in physiotherapists. By practising without insurance and by doing so for such an extended period, you removed a duly expected safety net from those in your care without their knowledge or consent. You placed many patients in a situation that could have resulted in serious and life changing consequences.
Your serious misconduct has resulted in a serious penalty, one which will be a deterrent not only to you personally but to the profession at large.
While the panel acknowledges your words indicating your remorse and similar statements in previous hearings, we remind you that it’s your actions that has resulted in you being before us today, and it is your actions going forward that would be far more important than any statements you can make.
We expect that when you return to practise, you will ensure your adherence to the standards of the profession and, moreover, that your actions will always put the needs of your patients before those of yourself. We expect that you will never again find yourself before a discipline panel of this College. In the future that a panel has a finding of misconduct, the outcome of this proceeding will weigh heavily on any future penalty consideration and will leave very few options available.
You can read the full decision of the Discipline Committee of the College of Physiotherapists of Ontario at: www.canlii.ca