Windsor (July 26, 2019) – Dr. Thomas J. Barnard will not practice again in Ontario. After a hearing at the College of Physicians and Surgeons (CPSO) on June 23, he resigned and agreed to never practice medicine in Ontario again. In the hearing, the Discipline Committee had found him not suitable to practice. This is the consequence of a history of practice restrictions, suspensions, and fraud investigations because of professional misconduct which date back to 2007.
Barnard has been a family physician and ran the private medical spa, called ‘Fresh Medical Spa’. From December 21, 2009, to September 9, 2010, on 138 days, Barnard invoiced time-based services for more than 24 hours a day to the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP). The OPP and CPSO investigated the fraudulent billing practice for 33-months. In May 2010, Barnard was arrested for committing two counts of fraud over $5,000, CBC reported.
In November 2010, Barnard was charged with two additional fraud charges concerning his improper billing practices, which were withdrawn in May 2017. Barnard made a deal that contained dropping his fraud charges if he pleads guilty to one count of knowingly obtaining or attempting to obtain unwarranted payments for service to the OHIP. As part of the issue, he also paid a fine of $600,000.
Besides his fraud-related misconduct, he was already restricted in the practice of his profession due to the death of one of his patients caused by multi-drug toxicity in 2012. Furthermore, Barnard was suspended in 2017 after engaging in “disgraceful, dishonorable or unprofessional conduct”, according to the Ontario College of Physicians.
