A sleep doctor accused of putting patients at risk at his Ontario clinics has been found guilty of professional misconduct.

Wagdy Abdulla Botros runs sleep clinics in London, Kitchener, Cambridge and Mississauga and already faced a litany of complaints.The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario has accused Botros of missteps affecting 35 patients between 2007 and 2010, claiming he ignored ailments and substituted guess work for evidence, claims Botros disputed at hearings last year.

Now, the same college that will decide his fate has found him guilty of professional misconduct after Botros failed, for 16 months, to take what is usually a four- or six-hour communication course ordered by a college committee in 2011 and re-affirmed by an appeals board in Jan, 2012.

From June 2012 to May 2013, college staff phoned Botros or his lawyers six times and sent six letters, six faxes and one e-mail, all asking him to schedule the course with an instructor the college had already chosen.

Botros objected to the consent form, and after the college said he could skip the form, made excuses why each date regulators proposed would not work.

It was the first time a doctor had resisted taken a communication course, a veteran college employee testified at a hearing last October. The college didn’t disclose the name the employee.

His lack of response or explanation “demonstrated contempt for his governing body,” the College’s disciplinary committee wrote in a decision released this week.

The Free Press left a message for Botros at his Kitchener office Wednesday but didn’t reach him for comment.

The College has also forwarded additional complaints from patients against Botros to its disciplinary committee, the regulator said this week.

jonathan.sher@sunmedia.ca

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