An ophthalmologist from Kelowna has been awarded $20,000 from the Interior Health Authority (IHA), after years of what the BC Hospital Appeal Board calls "appalling treatment" of the physician.
In a decision from June 26, 2024, the BC Hospital Appeal Board ruled in favour of Dr. Malvinder Hoonjan, an ophthalmologist who lives in Kelowna. Five years ago, Dr. Hoonjan was excluded from the transfer of a specialized surgical site from Kamloops to Kelowna, prompting him to take legal action against IHA.
The June decision is the latest in a series from the board, all of which have been in favour of Dr. Hoonjan.
In 2019, the specialized vitreoretinal surgery program was relocated from Kamloops to Kelowna. Dr. Hoonjan, who had been operating at the Royal Inland Hospital for nine years, had not been included in the onboarding process.
This meant that Dr. Hoonjan, who had a waiting list of people requiring surgery, was unable to conduct the operations his patients required.
Despite the lack of access to specialized operating rooms, Dr. Hoonjan has been able to work as an ophthalmologist and operate out of his clinic and as a consultant in the hospital and emergency department.
He has, however, been unable to use his specialized training and work as a vitreoretinal surgeon, which requires the equipment now located at the Kelowna General Hospital.
Dr. Hoonjan filed an appeal in 2021, after which the Hospital Appeal Board ruled in his favour and ordered IHA to grant the surgeon operating room privileges in Kelowna within 60 days.
In its decision, the Hospital Appeal Board found due process was not followed in the "competitive hiring process" conducted by IHA when the transition from Kamloops to Kelowna occurred.
The 2022 decision states, that a document called the Medical Staff Impact Analysis that was produced by IHA, already had two successful applicants’ names on it and contained approval dates from before the completion of the competitive hiring process.
In 2023, IHA was ordered by the Appeal Board to pay Hoonjan $10,000 after failing to grant him unrestricted operating room privileges.
The Appeal Board also noted that issues of lack of insight need to be viewed in the context of the potential for perceived biases against Dr. Hoonjan.
Despite the Hospital Appeal Board's ruling, in January 2024, Dr. Hoonjan had not yet received unrestricted access to the vitreoretinal operating rooms. This inaction prompted Kelowna’s Sikh community to issue a statement and call for action directed at the provincial government.
“Not only did the senior executive leadership improperly cancel Dr. Hoonjan’s privileges, but self-interested physicians were allowed to determine staffing needs, ultimately treating public resources as their own personal fiefdom,” reads the open letter addressed to Premier David Eby. The letter also notes that Dr. Hoonjan had not been involved with or requested the Sikh Society’s involvement in the matter.
According to the Hospital Appeal Board panel, Dr. Hoonjan is a visible minority as a Punjab South Asian Canadian who is Sikh and wears a turban.
Then on June 26, the Hospital Appeal Board's most recent decision found that the "Interior Health Authority's treatment of the Appellant is simply appalling," after the health authority still failed to grant Dr. Hoonjan access to operating room privileges.
The Appeal Board ordered IH to pay Dr. Hoonjan $20,000 in compensation.
"This panel finds it necessary to make an order for costs against IHA to send an appropriate message that conduct which delays or obfuscates the implementation of a Hospital Appeal Board order will not be tolerated."
The board then ordered IHA to work with Dr. Hoonjan to fix the issues in a way that does not involve disciplinary action or the involvement of the Hospital Appeal Board as the sole or preferable tool.
