A Toronto family doctor has been suspended for three months after a disciplinary tribunal discovered that he did not follow proper protocols while examining the breasts of a patient and uttered inappropriate comments about her body.
During a hearing organized by the Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons in recently, Dr. Tahmoures Bahrami did not deny that he engaged in professional misconduct towards a female patient during an appointment in October 2020.
The tribunal found that Bahrami did not explain a physical examination he was about to conduct on the patient during the appointment. He put his arm around her while palpating her side and said she had “a woman’s body.”
Two years later, during another appointment with the same patient, Bahrami again engaged in inappropriate conduct.
When he was about to perform a breast examination on the patient, “he tugged on [her] shirt and started to remove it,” the filing reads.
The filing continued: “Patient A was not given a gown and draping was not used during the examination. Dr. Bahrami did not offer to have a chaperone present and did not give Patient A privacy to take her clothes off or put them back on.”
Bahrami also made inappropriate comments concerning the woman’s body, telling telling her it was “perfect,” the documents suggest.
The patient. in a complaint later submitted to the College, said comments made by Bahrami at both appointments in respect of her body made her feel uncomfortable.
Though Bahrami has no prior formal disciplinary history with the College, the complaint in question isn’t the first over his conduct.
According to the documents, he was directed to undergo a self-directed learning program after he allegedly moved a patient in Manitoba’s bra without her consent and did not use proper draping in 2014.
In 2017, the College agreed that Bahrami would undergo further self-learning on communications and boundaries, including when examining patients privately and before physical examinations.
The tribunal found: “Despite participating in these self-directed learning programs, Bahrami was insensitive to the needs of [the patient] and cavalier in his approach when he performed the intimate breast examination.”
The tribunal accepted the parties’ joint submission of a three-month suspension and ordered Bahrami to undergo further ethical training and pay $6,000 in costs to the College.
Bahrami must also appear before the College to be formally reprimanded at a later date.
