The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta (CPSA) has indefinitely suspended the licence of a Sherwood Park doctor due to “a variety of ongoing concerns with his practice.”
Dr. Vincenzo Visconti, who operates out of the Brentwood Walk-In Clinic in Sherwood Park, was made aware of his suspension on Friday morning.
“It’s a sad day when we have to stop a physician from practicing, but when there’s no other option, it’s our job and we do it,” CPSA registrar Dr. Scott McLeod said in a media release.
“Section 65 is a last resort; we use it only in the rarest of cases: where we believe a physician’s practice represents a continuing risk to patients, we’ve been unable to remedy it using the tools available to us, and we finally are not willing to allow it to continue while the discipline process follows its course.”
McLeod would not go into the details of why the suspension was issued, but stressed it was issued for “a multitude of reasons.”
“There’s a multitude of reasons why and unfortunately I can’t get into the details of it because there is a hearing that’s going to be pending and I certainly don’t want to provide any information that could distort that hearing in any way.
“It will come out in time.”
Visconti’s licence was previously suspended, according to the CPSA’s website.
“In 2012 there was a case and I would say that things have continued on and off since that time,” McLeod said. “You could say that there is a connection to concerns that were raised at that time.
“It’s actually ongoing investigations and concerns we’ve had at the college for a long time.”
Initially, Visconti was given two weeks in which he would be allowed to see patients in his office for five hours per day, as a way to help them transition to other doctors. He was told he must inform his patients of the upcoming closure of his practice, the CPSA said Friday. During that time, Visconti’s power to prescribe drugs would be limited.
Then, Friday, April 27 would be the day Visconti would no longer be allowed to practice medicine of any kind or see patients. This is pending the outcome of discipline proceedings.
However, on April 20, the CPSA said Visconti’s practice permit was suspended indefinitely as of 12:43 p.m. that day “due to his failure to abide by conditions placed on his practice by the CPSA.”
In a news release, the college said Visconti cannot see patients or practice medicine in any respect pending the outcome of discipline currently in process.
McLeod acknowledged Visconti’s patients may be alarmed by the news of the suspension, but added: “we believe that the care that they’re going to get under the care of another physician will be better.”
“Patient safety and easy transition of care to other physicians is our number one concern in this case,” McLeod said.
Patients are advised to call Health Link (811) for information and assistance in finding another physician.
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