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\nTHIS IS THE SECOND DEPARTMENT THREATENED WITH \u2018NOTICE OF INTENT TO WITHDRAW ACCREDITATION\u2019 BY THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF CANADA HEADED BY DR. MABERLEY<\/p>\n
The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada<\/a> have filed a notice of intent to withdraw accreditation from the University of Ottawa\u2019s Department of Ophthalmology<\/a>, found through a freedom of information request under the Canadian Access to Information Act<\/a> filed by the Fulcrum\u00a0<\/p>\n According to documents reviewed by the Fulcrum, Dr. Melissa Forgie, the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, and Sandy Tse, associate medical director and chair of the accreditation committee, received this notice of intent to withdraw by email in May 2024. There are only a handful of residents in the program, with only 2 or 3 admissions annually<\/a>. The Canadian Ophthalmological Society in 2022 said there were around 220 residents total across Canada<\/a>.<\/p>\n A notice of intent to withdraw accreditation is serious, serving as a final warning before a program loses its right to train residents. The last U of O program to receive a notice was the department of Neurosurgery in 2015. The Ottawa Citizen described this notice as \u201c\u2026 an embarrassing black eye for [U of O\u2019s] medical faculty\u201d<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n According to the Royal College\u2019s handbook, page 8 of chapter 17 titled \u201cAccreditation\u201d, a notice of intent to withdraw accreditation for an already accredited program, such as the University of Ottawa\u2019s ophthalmology department, means \u201cthere are weaknesses of sufficient magnitude to call into question the existence or safety of a functioning residency program.\u201d<\/p>\n Review of a program\u2019s accreditation is part of a regular review process, and for the department of ophthalmology, this is the Accreditation Review of Postgraduate Medical Education (PGME).<\/p>\n When the Fulcrum inquired, University of Ottawa spokesperson Jesse Robichaud provided details about this process, stating that:<\/p>\n \u201cThe regular Accreditation Review of Postgraduate Medical Education (PGME) programs occurs on an eight-year cycle, with the latest cycle occurring most recently at the University of Ottawa\u2019s Faculty of Medicine in 2024. Each of the programs remains accredited, and most of the Faculty\u2019s 76 PGME programs will be evaluated again in 2032 at the next regular review cycle. As part of the standard quality improvement process, the Ophthalmology program received an accreditation status in 2024 that mandates an external review, and it will undergo follow-up reviews in 2027.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Dr. David Maberley, the chairman and head of the University of Ottawa<\/a> department of ophthalmology, was previously the head<\/a> of the University of British Columbia\u2019s (UBC) department of ophthalmology from 2013-2021. In 2020, the UBCs department of ophthalmology was also given a notice of intent to withdraw from the Royal College<\/a>. This was only made public through reporting by CTV News Vancouver, Penny Daflos, three years later.\u00a0<\/p>\n In 2024, Daflos further reported that UBC\u2019s department<\/a> \u201cmade sweeping changes following a damning report outlining bullying and sexual harassment of student eye doctors.\u201d The report, titled the \u201cMiller Report\u201d, written by lawyer Renee Miller and dated May 20, 2022, obtained in whole by the Fulcrum, stated that the \u201c[UBC] program has persistent issues of unprofessional conduct and harassment: sexual harassment, racial, and bullying and harassment.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n