Addict doctor allowed to resume working

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This article was published 16/06/2011 (5289 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Winnipeg doctor addicted to drugs and alcohol has been reinstated to practise medicine after losing his licence eight months ago.

The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba recently posted a notice on its website stating that Dr. John Alexander Kreml will be practising family medicine again at the Parkview Medical Clinic under strict conditions.

Kreml is the third Winnipeg doctor in the last 10 months whose licence to practise medicine has been reinstated by the College of Physicians and Surgeons.

Kreml was suspended from practising in June 2009 after a 10-year period when he attended an exclusive rehab facility that specializes in health-care professionals, was twice charged with drunk driving and was monitored and drug tested by the college for two years before his suspension.

Kreml applied to the college in March to be reinstated, a move that was supported by the college’s investigation committee.

The college’s executive committee concluded that Kreml’s rehab efforts have been “substantially successful” and that he can practise medicine again under strict conditions without placing the public at risk and without undermining the public’s confidence in the medical profession.

“The terms and conditions which have been proposed will enable Dr. Kreml to practise medicine safely,” a college report states.

The college has restricted Kreml’s practice to the Parkview Professional Centre Walk-In Clinic, at 2110 Main St., where he must practise under the supervision of an on-site physician.

Kreml must also attend Alcoholics Anonymous and Physicians-at-Risk meetings on a weekly basis, continue to receive psychiatric care and submit to unannounced drug testing at least 12 times a year.

The college summary states Kreml was drinking heavily when he was suspended on June 30, 2009. Subsequently, he re-entered rehab at the same facility he had attended nine years earlier and was discharged after four weeks.

Kreml pleaded guilty in May 2010 to a series of charges of professional misconduct that included falsifying medical records to obtain prescription drugs for his own use, issuing narcotic prescriptions without creating any medical records and providing false information to the college.

His licence was formally suspended in October 2010, and he was ordered to pay $15,000 to cover the cost of the investigation and inquiry against him.

aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca

Physicians regain practices

The College of Physicians and Surgeons has reinstated three Winnipeg doctors during the past 10 months who lost their licences because of either drug/alcohol addiction or inappropriate behaviour.

June 2011, Dr. John Kreml — Admitted drug and alcohol addiction, wrote prescriptions without medical records and wrote prescriptions for patients that he used for himself. Suspended from practising medicine in June 2009. Stripped of his licence in October 2010. Reinstated with strict conditions this month.

January 2011, Dr. Marvin Slutchuk — Had sex with patients and cavorted nude with female staff at an office Christmas party. Retired in 2002. Lost his licence in 2003 following a formal investigation. Reinstated in 2007 but restricted to male patients. Allowed to treat female patients in January 2011.

August 2010, Dr. Anthony Hlynka — While addicted to painkillers, prescribed OxyContin and Percocet to patients in exchange for a portion of the drugs, prescribed narcotics to people he had never met or treated. Lost his licence on an interim basis in May 2009. Found guilty in November 2009 of professional misconduct. Reinstated in August 2010.

The reinstatement conditions imposed on all three doctors can be found at:

www.cpsm.mb.ca/2_3_5_4_reinstatements.php