Local doctor found to have molested patient seven years ago will learn professional fate soon

By Medicine Hat News on February 22, 2024.

@MedicineHatNews

A Medicine Hat doctor found to have molested a patient in 2017 by a professional standards board will learn whether he can continue to practise medicine soon.

A tribunal of the Alberta College of Physicians and Surgeons heard arguments for sanctions earlier this month against Dr. Ian Gebhardt.

Such decisions typically take a month or more to be finalized.

It will also deliberate on whether to submit the findings to police and Alberta Justice officials. That is a requirement in such cases, but made more complicated in this case, which was already subject of criminal charges that were stayed in court five years ago.

Gebhardt was subject of a ACPS disciplinary hearing last year over allegations he sexually abused a mentally disabled male patient during an examination.

The tribunal found Gebhardt initiated oral sex with the patient, which constituted “sexual boundary violations and conduct that harms the integrity of the profession.”

College officials applied for an interim suspension at the time of the disciplinary tribunal in September 2013, but that was denied. He was allowed to continue seeing patients with a chaperone present while sanction was determined.

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