A doctor who last month alleged sexual harassment against a faculty member at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine is still suspended, with no known return date.



"NOSM and I met (last week) to start developing a ‘back to work plan’ together," Dr. Ana Safavi says. "The main issue now is how to keep me safe from retaliation by faculty who may be upset that I went to the media with my story. As far as I know, my return is still conditional upon me providing NOSM (not Health Sciences North) with written affirmation that I consider HSN (not NOSM) to be a safe workplace.



"NOSM still denies that my mandatory paid leave is a suspension. They want me to call it a compassionate leave (that I didn’t ask for)."



While she and the medical school have agreed on a third party investigator, the scope of the investigation remains an unanswered question.



When contracted, medical school officials told The Star on Tuesday they cannot say much, while Health Sciences North referred the newspaper to the medical school.



"Throughout this process, NOSM has been acting diligently with the medical resident to work through the issues," the medical school said in a statement. "It is a very complex and sensitive matter.



"Given the confidential nature of this issue, coupled with our obligation to protect the privacy rights of individuals (including Dr. Safavi) and the fact that the investigation of this matter is currently in motion, we are not able to comment further."



Beyond her sexual harassment complaint, Safavi is alleging that other faculty members have used intimidation and harassment against her.



Just two weeks into her residency, Safavi said she was tending to a patient on behalf of another doctor.



"The patient became unresponsive, with a dangerously low blood pressure. The patient’s nurse and I called the critical care response team for help," Safavi explains. "We stayed with the patient until the ICU doctor and nurse came and resuscitated him. He was fine."



The next morning, Safavi says the doctor "berated me in front of her team for calling CCRT (critical care response team) for help. She said it’s embarrassing for her when a resident calls CCRT, and then she has to talk to the ICU doctor.



"She said that by getting involved, I had placed her in a position of responsibility over an unstable patient and she didn’t think that should be her responsibility, because she was busy with other patients and had research meetings all day long."



The doctor also chastised her team for allowing Safavi to get involved, she says.



"Then, she personally banned me from calling CCRT for the rest of the year," Safavi says. "This is against hospital policy, which states that literally anyone in the hospital (including patients, family and visitors) should call CCRT if a patient becomes unstable."



Safavi reported the doctor to her program administrators at the medical school.



"I told the program that I didn’t want to work with (her), because I believed it put the safety of my patients at risk," Safavi says. "The program told me there was nothing they could do, because it was (her) word against mine. I told them I had evidence to support my account of events. They refused to look at the evidence, and as far as I know, (she) never faced any repercussions for her actions."



Safavi did tell her story to a sympathetic program leader, but unfortunately she says she was told that kind of behaviour was par for the course.



"That same program leader told me and my husband that harassment, including sexual harassment, while unfortunate, is just a normal part of being a resident," she says. "She said that being a doctor is not like a regular job in an office, where there is HR (human resources department), and you have rights and protections."



Safavi later learned an investigation had taken place into the doctor’s conduct ¬ without her knowledge or participation — but her allegations were dismissed.



"(They) decided that my allegations of harassment against (her) were unfounded. I requested that the investigation be re-opened, so that the program would be forced to look at my evidence," she says.



She was told the matter was closed.



Safavi then says NOSM administrators undertook a smear campaign against her. She says a senior doctor at Health Sciences North warned her in May 2017 about the situation.



“He said during a teleconference two days earlier (that another senior doctor) had told him that I need to be punished for raising harassment concerns in the lead up to accreditation, a time that she felt was particularly vulnerable for the program. He told me to document everything and hire a lawyer,” Safavi says.



“The program’s external accreditation review took place on March 2, 2017. The program was working very hard in advance of accreditation in order to make sure that it passed. The program had failed its previous accreditation review in 2014, in part because of harassment concerns. The program could not afford to fail again. If a program fails accreditation two cycles in a row, it is disbanded altogether.”



A 2016 PowerPoint presentation on the medical school’s website indicates the internal medicine and psychiatry programs were on notice of losing their accreditation. In fact, the website states the two programs had received a notice of intent to withdraw accreditation from The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.



“When major and/or continuing weaknesses have been identified which bring into question the ongoing accreditation of the program, notice of intent to withdraw accreditation will be given,” the Royal College explains. “Within two years of such notice being given, an external review will be conducted. At that time, the program will be required to show cause why accreditation should not be withdrawn.”



In a separate email dated October 2016, harassment and intimidation were identified as ongoing problems at the medical school.



Safavi met with administrators on Jan. 29 to discuss her sexual harassment allegations. Four days later, she was suspended. She has not been back to work since.



mkkeown@postmedia.com



Twitter: @marykkeown



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