Dr. Katakkar Suspended in May
Thursday, July 5, 2012 @ 1:43 PM
Prince George, B.C. –Dr. Suresh Katakkar, who has resigned from his post as the Chief Medical Oncologist with the yet to open Cancer Centre for the North, was suspended with pay in late May says the BC Cancer Agency’s Vice President, Systemic Therapy, Dr. Charles Blanke.
Dr. Blanke says the suspension is normal procedure “ Several concerns were brought to our attention with regard to Dr. Katakkar’s practice and it is our usual practice, when there are practice or care concerns, we suspended him temporarily with pay pending the results of an investigation into the concerns which we immediately launched and during the course of the review Dr. Katakkar decided to resign for reasons known only to him.”
The investigation continues, “I want to assure you that safe and effective care of our patients in the North is of utmost importance to the Agency, everything we are dong is directed towards that goal” says Dr. Blanke.
He says the BC Cancer Agency is going to try and conclude the investigation “as quickly as possible” but that doesn’t mean the results will be made public. “I think our major goal of the investigation is to ensure safe and effective care of patients in the north, if anything affecting patient care is brought to our attention, of course we will bring it to the patients directly and as quickly as possible.”
Citing concerns for patient confidentiality, Dr. Blanke would not disclose the nature of the concerns, nor would he clarify if the concerns were raised by a fellow physician, or a patient.
All of Dr. Katakkar’s patients are being reassigned to BC Cancer Agency physicians “Of course the new physicians will also review the charts and will discuss their care plans in totality with said patients” says Dr. Blanke. The exact number of patients being looked after by Dr. Katakkar is not available.
Comments
Wish i could hear his side, doubt i will
In my experience dealing with professionals in the medical field, the concerns must be most valid to result in this extreme measure…suspension is pretty rare. Much like other clubs i.e. RCMP it is remnisc. of the old boys club where it takes substantial barking to get things looked into & taken seriously. Ultimately, it is patient care and safety that should always be at the forefront – and it is well documented that this is not always the case. Better safe than sorry when it comes to the expense of people already at the rock bottom!
Thats what happens if you need to reach into your own tool kit of 35+ years experience to assist a patient6 who is not responding to accepted methods of treatment. Guidelines of safety are there to be met, and rightly so. However, I am certain that Katakar did not make his decision to step outside of authorized procedures without very careful consideration, and sound judgement in his attempt to provide optimum treatment for his patient.
The system fails again and Northern patients will be back on the road again in search Oncology tratment.
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