Doctor to pay college $50k after exceeding patient quota

A Vancouver-area physician who was working under practice restrictions has been hit with a $50,000 penalty and a one-day suspension for exceeding a daily, college-mandated patient quota.The College of Physicians and Surgeons of British Columbia had ruled that Abbotsford’s Dr. Daljit Singh Herar only be allowed to see a maximum of 40 patients per day, and that he not exceed six days of work per week.Those restrictions were put in place following college disciplinary actions against Dr. Herar in 2005 and 1999; for countersigning prescriptions for U.S. patients so they could get cheaper drugs, and for prescribing narcotics to patients who were prone to abuse, respectively.Additionally, Dr. Herar had been practising under the condition that “he notify all physicians and clinical staff at his practice locations of the terms and conditions of his practice."The latest penalty, which included a formal reprimand and a forced one-day suspension on Feb. 25, was made public last month.“The inquiry committee was critical of Dr. Herar’s breach of his practice conditions,” stated the college in a media release. “Given the importance that must be placed on physicians to comply with conditions placed on their practice by the college, the inquiry committee determined (that) a disciplinary outcome was appropriate,” the college added.Dr. Herar, a graduate of the UBC Faculty of Medicine in 1986, must also to remain in the “Conditional – Disciplined” class of registration with the college.Dr. Herar’s troubles with the CPSBC date more than two decades.On Feb. 1, 2005, the CPSBC found him guilty of “infamous conduct” in a high-profile, cross-border prescription case. “He countersigned prescriptions written by physicians in the United States in order that such prescriptions might be dispensed by pharmacies in British Columbia for U.S. patients,” said the college in 2005.Dr. Herar admitted that he had signed thousands of prescriptions without seeing the patients face-to-face. That prescription case made headlines south of the border and Dr. Herar was also found to have lied to investigators and kept improper records.That resulted in a two-year suspension but Dr. Herar was able to resume his practice under college-mandated conditions.A previous run-in with the college in 1999 also resulted in a one-year suspension after Dr. Herar admitted to prescribing medication to addiction-prone patients.In the punishment handed down this year, the $50,000 penalty included $10,000 in costs and a $40,000 fine.Dr. Herar must “only practise in a group practice setting with at least one other full-time physician,” and must not see patients unless a “medical office assistant in present,” according to a list of current conditions set by the college.Additionally, he “must notify all clinical and medical staff of the conditions on his practice.”

Doctor to pay college $50k after exceeding patient quota

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