A Guelph psychiatrist has had his licence revoked for professional misconducts that included sexual abuse of a patient.
Dr. George Glumac, who operated his Guelph practice at 1 Pheasant Run Dr., later threatened and tried to bribe the patient so she and her husband would not report him to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario regarding money he borrowed from them, the college ruled.
The ruling stems from a college discipline committee hearing held March 21.
Glumac did not attend the discipline hearing.
The charges stem from incidents regarding a married couple that Glumac began seeing as patients in 2008.
The most serious of the charges occurred in late 2009 and early 2010.
Patient A had undergone a mastectomy and was recovering in a respite facility when Glumac visited the patient and began hugging and kissing her.
A few days later he returned and lay on the bed with Patient A, an incident detailed in the discipline committee's written ruling.
"When Patient A asked Dr. Glumac what his intentions were, he told her not to worry and that his intentions were not sexual. Dr. Glumac invited her to lay on the bed with him and asked if he could hug her. They lay on the bed together in a spooning position and he kissed her from behind. She felt his erection pressing against her. Patient A got off the bed and asked Dr. Glumac to leave the respite facility."
Following chemotherapy, Patient A again began seeing Glumac, and again he "kissed her on the lips and hugged her frequently."
In addition to being found guilty of sexual abuse of a patient, Glumac was also found guilty of failing to maintain the standard of the profession, engaging in professional conduct that was disgraceful, dishonourable or unprofessional, and being incompetent.
Glumac introduced Patient A to a business advisor, recommending he let her act as her business manager. This later led to Patient A and her husband incurring "significant debt," said the ruling.
In June 2011 Patient A and her husband inherited $40,000.00. Two weeks later Glumac phoned the couple and asked if he could borrow $20,000 for a charitable organization he ran.
Glumac failed to repay the funds within the first three months and after repeated calls from the couple gave them a cheque for $2,000.
Patient A then began emailing Dr. Glumac asking for the rest of the money and told Glumac she and her husband would commence legal action or report him if he didn't pay them back.
Patient A terminated the doctor-patient relationship with Glumac in January 2012.
Glumac later admitted to Patient A that he had borrowed the money to support his real estate management and investment company and not for charitable purposes.
Glumac and his wife telephoned Patients A and B and pleaded with them not to report him to the college.
"Dr. Glumac attended at their home and threatened them in order to prevent them from reporting him to the College. Dr. Glumac threatened to cease providing medications to Patient A. He also offered to pay Patients A and B an additional $20,000.00 if Patient A agreed not to report him to the College," reads the decision.
In June 2012, Patients A and B reported Glumac to the College. A month later he paid off the remainder of the money he owed them.
The college also found that Glumac did not manage the patient's drug therapy correctly and "displayed a lack of knowledge and skill in said management."
He also billed OHIP for services he did not provide and was charging OHIP for services rendered over the phone.
"The College retained Dr. D to review Dr. Glumac’s OHIP billing. In all but one of 32 patient charts that Dr. D reviewed, he found that the OHIP billing Dr. Glumac submitted failed in some way to meet the standard of practice of the profession," the discipline committee ruling states.
