Quebec College of Physicians revokes ER doctor's license for lying on CV: ruling

Quebec doctor loses license for alleged CV lie A doctor from the Fleury Hospital in the north end of Montreal has lost his license over an alleged lie about his past as a med student

An emergency room doctor at the Fleury Hospital in Montreal has had his license revoked after the College of Physicians found that he had not been truthful about his past schooling in the United States.

Sanjeev Sirpal was admitted to the College of Physicians in April 2019 and began working for the Montreal North health and social services centre (CIUSSS du Nord de l'Ile de Montreal).

The Oct. 11 ruling says that Sirpal did not tell the truth related to his misconduct, antecedents and referrals in his previous career when obtaining his permit to practice as a specialist in family medicine in the province.

The judgment written by college president Daniel Y. Lord and doctors Lise Cusson and Raja Tamaz reads that Sirpal answered a series of questions about his past academic misconduct falsely and that he "has been concealing the problematic aspects of his time at various American universities."

"These answers, when contrasted with those that he would later include on his college registration form, demonstrate that the respondent has a long history of lack of transparency with the authorities governing the medical profession," the document reads.

The decision says that Sirpal was dismissed from the University of Miami after allegations of misconduct and an ethical issue arose.

Sirpal, the document reads, "sees it as an issue of ethnic discrimination."

The documents show that he did not disclose this information when being admitted to a PhD program in biochemistry and molecular biology at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

He was expelled from Johns Hopkins.

"Although he acknowledges the existence of interprofessional friction, the respondent explains that he did not complete his PhD at Johns Hopkins University, as he had made the decision to leave the program to concentrate on his medical training, which better satisfied his interest in scientific matters," the document reads.

On a College of Physicians form asking if he had been found guilty of misconduct by a post-secondary institution, Sirpal answered "no."

After Johns Hopkins, Sirpal went to St. Lucia, received his MD in 2013 from the Spartan Health School of Medicine and moved to Ontario following his father's death and worked as a researcher at Brampton City Hospital in Ontario. He then studied at the University of Toronto in 2016.

Sirpal argued that "the limitation imposed by the form led him to conclude that he did not have to provide information about his academic background prior to graduation from Spartan Health Sciences University."

The college found that "the respondent's deceptions and half-truths 'corrupted' the process of his admission to the profession."

Sirpal's counsel argues in the document that he answered questions on the college's registration "to the best of his knowledge" and that "he cannot be blamed for having made a poor analysis of the form."

The complainant argues, however, that "he systematically concealed facts that were potentially prejudicial to his admission to his admission to the Order, and by his responses, he demonstrated mental restriction."

The judgment says he "knowingly" provided the Quebec College of Physicians "inaccurate information on his antics on various American university campuses."