Patient abused by Toronto doctor upset his medical licence won’t be revoked

Temerra Dixon is enraged after Dr. Javad Peirovy, a family doctor she saw in 2010, won his case at the Ontario Court of Appeal on Thursday.

The decision will allow Peirovy to continue practicing medicine.

“I’m very upset,” said Dixon while still trying to digest the decision.

“Essentially it’s a failure of the system. That this guy is still practicing is hard for me to grasp. It makes zero sense.”

Eight years ago, Temerra Dixon went to a walk-in clinic near Christie Street and Bloor Street West with an ear infection and asked to have her chest checked. She said Peirovy asked her to lay down on the examining table and proceeded to grope her.

“He took the stethoscope, went under my bra, took his fingers and tweaked my nipple with his fingers. He did it to one side and then he did it to the other side as well,” said the emotional wife and mother.

Dixon said she saw Peirovy’s picture on the news a few months later after Toronto police said they had charged him with sexual assault. She came forward and testified at the trial. He eventually pleaded guilty to two counts of simple assault.

The issue of Peirovy’s medical licence was the subject of a disciplinary hearing at the College of Physicians and Surgeons. The discipline committee found Pierovy guilty of misconduct involving the sexual assault of four female patients and inappropriate conduct with respect to a fifth at a walk in medical clinic in 2009 and 2010. Dixon was one of the four female patients. The disciplinary committee imposed a penalty consisting of a six-month suspension and restrictions on his return to practice.

Dixon was so outraged that she asked to have the publication ban on her name lifted.

“I was so upset and I knew people had to know what was going on. And if I was to come out and say something, Ms. X would be a name,” she said.

“It just makes it more real, and I’ve already felt I’ve got nothing to hide.”

The College of Physicians and Surgeons was upset with the sentence handed down by its own discipline committee appealed the decision at the divisional court and the penalty was overturned.

On Friday, the Court of Appeal overturned the divisional court’s appeal saying the discipline committee’s penalty would be restored.

While calling Peirovy’s behaviour “reprehensible,” the court found “the discipline committee is the expert tribunal created by the legislature to assess allegations of misconduct in the medical profession.”

In May 2017, the laws changed and any doctor found guilty of grouping a patient will have their licence automatically revoked.

Dan Faulkner, interim registrar for the College of Physicians and Surgeons, issued a statement on Thursday saying sexual contact between a physician and a patient is “never acceptable” and that the College is committed to protecting patients.

“Although we are disappointed with the outcome of the Court’s decision, we are heartened to know that as a result of recent amendments made to the College’s legislation, a similar finding would result in automatic revocation of a health professional’s licence,” Faulkner wrote.

Meanwhile, Peirovy is now practicing at the “Ultimate Diagnostics” walk-in clinic in North York. A sign in the waiting room tells patients that Pierovy can only care for women if in the company of another female health professional and for more information to go to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario website.

The sign is only in English. All the other signs in the office are translated in Farsi.

Peirovy was not available for a comment.