Winnipeg doctor disciplined following patient complaints, inquiry

A stock photo of a stethoscope. (Pixabay)

A Winnipeg doctor has been disciplined following a host of allegations from patients, including prescribing asthma medication to a child without an exam, creating a false and misleading medical record, and refusing to see an adult patient without their mother present.

According to a 20-page decision by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba (CPSM), Dr. Nazmun Nahar Bhuiyan pleaded guilty at a November hearing to nearly a dozen charges, including five counts of professional misconduct and five counts of misleading the college during its investigation.

Bhuiyan’s guilty plea follows a 2023 inquiry into allegations involving five patients.

In a joint reprimand recommendation made by Bhuiyan’s lawyers and the college, the physician must now practice under the supervision of a monitor, limit the volume and scope of her practice, and provide a weekly compliance report to the college.

“The reprimand set out in the joint recommendation serves to denounce Dr. Bhuiyan’s conduct,” the college wrote in its decision.

“It is a significant punishment for a professional to have been judged by colleagues to have breached practice standards and ethics.”

Doctor failed to do physical exams, created misleading medical record

The charges stem from dealings with patients from 2021 to 2023.

The first incident involved a patient who went to Bhuiyan’s Winnipeg walk-in clinic in August 2021 with concerns that a lesion on her genitalia could be a sexually transmitted infection.

This was the patient’s first time seeing Bhuiyan, the report said.

According to decision, Bhuiyan did not do a physical exam or record any history, other than noting the patient had a lesion that was not painful.

The patient complained to the college.

In a September 2021 written response, the doctor alleged she had taken a patient history and considered several diagnoses before giving the patient a leaflet about herpes so she could compare its information with her own symptoms.

However, Bhuiyan acknowledged in an agreed statement of facts that these interactions did not happen, though she did show the patient a poster.

Another complaint involved a child patient and her mother’s June 2022 visit to Bhuiyan’s clinic. The patient’s mother told the receptionist her daughter had experienced asthma symptoms for several days.

Ten minutes later, the receptionist gave the mother a prescription for a puffer. The mother asked if she could see the doctor, as her daughter usually had two medications, and she required a prescription for the second as well.

The receptionist came back soon after with a second prescription for a higher dose than was previously prescribed.

The child was never examined and all discussions about the child’s medical needs happened in the reception area in the presence of others, the report noted.

After a complaint was filed, the doctor initially told the college the mother had been confrontational with her and was unwilling to have her child examined. Those claims were untrue, the college wrote, as the two never met and the mother had specifically requested an examination.

Bhuiyan also created a misleading medical record in relation to the encounter, the college said.

Another complaint involved an adult patient who went to Bhuiyan’s clinic in September 2022, seeking a referral to a dermatologist for treatment of a rash on her hands and feet.

The college said Bhuiyan met with the patient but abruptly ended the meeting, even though the patient had more questions.

Bhuiyan then told the patient to bring her mother to her next appointments, despite the patient being an adult.

The patient came back to the clinic several months later, telling staff she was in severe pain. Still, Bhuiyan refused to see her without her mother there, the report claims, and the patient left without being seen.

The final incident involved a woman with bipolar disorder.

During a March 2022 phone appointment, Bhuiyan told the patient she was no longer comfortable prescribing her psychiatric medications, which she had previously prescribed with input from the patient’s psychiatrist.

Still, the patient went to the clinic the next day to try to get her prescription renewed, which Bhuiyan refused to do, saying the patient had not gone for lab work and a physical examination.

The doctor then told the woman to get a new doctor. Bhuiyan denied having terminated the physician-patient relationship, but her records showed the opposite to be true.

Doing so violated ethical and standards of practice provisions, the college noted.

Doctor violated core ethical values: college

CPSM’s decision issued Dec. 5 also notes that of Bhuiyan’s 11 charges, five deal with misleading the college during its investigation.

“In making multiple false and misleading statements to the CPSM, Dr. Bhuiyan violated one of the core values set out in the Code of Ethics, that is, the duty of honesty,” the decision said.

The reprimand handed down by the college is open-ended and will remain in effect until it is modified or rescinded by the assistant registrar.

The doctor will also pay $30,000 for the costs of the investigation and expenses from the inquiry.

CTV News reached out to Dr. Bhuiyan in regard to the college’s decision, but she declined to comment.