High price to pay: Pharmacist banned and hit with fines and college costs totalling $110,000

An Ontario pharmacist has been banned from practice and ordered to pay $110,000 in fines and discipline costs after she was found guilty of numerous offences that included practising as a pharmacist while her certificate was suspended and submitting more than $123,000 in false or unsubstantiated claims to the Ontario Drug Benefit Program. Joy Abanzukwe, manager and owner of Brock Medical Pharmacy in Toronto, was found guilty of professional misconduct with respect to four referrals from the Ontario College of Pharmacists’ inquiries, complaints and reports committee. In addition to contravening an order that suspended her licence, Abanzukwke failed to comply with an order for her work with a practice mentor. The committee also found she had falsified records, signed documents that she knew contained false of misleading information, and kept medications in inventory without expiry dates. Abanzukwe also failed to maintain the integrity of her pharmacy’s inventory of the sleeping pill zopiclone, resulting in the loss of almost 840 7.5-milligram tablets of the medication between January 2018 to August 2020. Read: Licence yanked from Ontario pharmacist college says stole, submitted fraudulent claims and sexually abused a patient Following its decision in November 2021, the committee ordered that Abanzukwe’s certificate of registration be revoked and imposed a fine of $35,000 to be paid to the province’s Minister of Finance. Abanzukwe is also required to pay costs to the college in the amount of $75,000. Of this total, $21,000 is to be paid on the date the committee’s order becomes final and the balance must be paid in eight instalments of $6,750 every three months. The pharmacy itself is subject to terms, conditions and limitations and requires a designated manager other than Abunzukwe to stay operational until it’s sold. Should a sale not happen within six months after the order is finalized, the pharmacy’s certificate of registration will be revoked. The sanctions, according to the committee, represent a “global order” that addresses findings of professional and proprietary misconduct. Read: $21,500 fine for $242K in kickbacks: Another ex-partner of Quebec's deposed 'king of pharmacy' gets sanctioned

High price to pay: Pharmacist banned and hit with fines and college costs totalling $110,000

Register for free access or login.

Related Topics