Ottawa doctor ran "dirty" clinic

The Parkdale Medical Tower is shown in Ottawa on Monday, October 17, 2011. Ottawa Public Health has sent warning letters to upwards of 7,000 patients that may have been exposed to Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C and HIV from a clinic run by Dr. Christiane Farazli whose offices are located in the building. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

An Ottawa Doctor at the centre of an infection control scare a couple of years ago ran a "dirty" clinic that re-used medical equipment that wasn't re-usable.

Inspection details of Dr. Christiane Farazli's clinic are now available to the public on a website run by the Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons.   It's a list of inspections for more than 200 out-of-hospital premises in Ontario that perform cosmetic surgery, colonoscopies, interventional pain procedures and cataract surgeries in clinical settings.

Dr. Farazli's clinic is one of 11 that failed since the College began doing the inspections in 2010.

She hasn't been able to perform endoscopies since her clinic failed an inspection in June of 2011.  The College’s website at www.cpso.on.ca outlines 24 reasons why her clinic was shut down including re-using single use items, gross contamination from a dirty scope and no proper cleaning between patients.

Jean-Francois Farjon was one of Farazli’s patients and now part of a class action lawsuit against the doctor.  “She was brutal,” Farjon recalls of his colonoscopy procedure, “She was not taking care of her patients.”

Farjon says the website is a good start but believes it should include a forum for patients to voice their concerns.

“If a doctor has been object of several complaints, this has to be taken into account in such information.”

Since the College started inspections on out-of-hospital clinics two years ago, 11 clinics have failed, 17 have passed with conditions.    The college's registrar says the launch of this public tool will raise the standard of care for patients.

“Currently patients can be reassured,” says Dr. Rocco Gerace, “that the standard of care and the standard of the facility are at least as good as those standards in hospitals.”

Dr. Peter Brownrigg’s clinic for cosmetic surgery passed its inspection in April of 2012.

“It included everything,” says registered nurse and office manager Marguerite Tait, ”from infection control, calibration of equipment, building and fire codes to disposing of body fluids.”

Tait says the inspections and the public website will create tighter standards in a growing industry.

“People are becoming more interested in cosmetic procedures,” adds Tait, “and they're going to facilities where doctors are not always qualified to deliver the skills required for a particular surgery.”