The following statement was released this evening by Dr. Joe Philip in response to a media release circulated earlier today by the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit and subsequent media stories:
My name is Dr. Joe Philip and I have been practicing dentistry in Orillia for the past 17 years. I came to Orillia after the death of my father in law, who started Orillia Christian Fellowship, in order to carry out the work he started; work that was of benefit to Orillia. After completing my residency at the Hospital for Sick Children, I had my privileges transferred to Orillia Soldiers Memorial Hospital. As far as I am aware, my office is the only practice in Orillia that focuses on children, young adults and special needs. The Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit, Durham Region Health Unit and the North Bay Parry Sound Health Unit all refer paediatric patients to my office in addition to the over 40 dentists in Simcoe County who also refer their paediatric patients to my practice. Even though my office performs paediatric surgery two-three days per week, my waiting list is over six months. My dental office is the only office in Orillia that also has an oral surgeon, two paediatric dentists and three anaesthetists. I have completed over 12,000 paediatric dental surgical cases in Orillia without incident. In recognition of my work, Garfield Dunlop, former MPP for Orillia, presented me with a physician long service award. Also, I am a father of four children and have been married for over twenty years. I am a law abiding citizen that does not even have a traffic violation.
I am releasing this statement because my dental office was closed by Public Health in relation to a complaint that they received from a former, disgruntled employee. She decided to use public services and citizen tax dollars to satisfy a personal vendetta after we refused to respond to her emailed threats. To be clear, this complaint is NOT a result of a patient acquiring an infection from my office.
On Monday, Dec. 11, 2017, Public health came to my office and informed my staff that they were going to do an inspection while my dental associates and I were seeing our patients. Public Health was informed that this was not an ideal time since the mother of our office manager had passed away suddenly and the funeral was that day which resulted in us being short staffed but they told us that they were going to do the inspection regardless. We cooperated with Public Health. The inspection caused undue stress to our employees with one of them distraught, almost to the point of break down. Public health did not close the office on December 11th because they did not find adequate evidence that the public was in danger. They could see that the office was built three years ago, according to all provincial and municipal guidelines. All the equipment was purchased and instruction/training on their use were provided by reputable dental companies. Public health came in on Tuesday, Dec. 12 and gave additional and conflicting instructions, which my staff implemented. They did not close the office on Dec. 12. At the end of Wednesday, Dec. 13 (the third day after their initial day of inspection), Public Health closed my dental office without a Royal College of Dental Surgeons of Ontario (RCDSO) inspector present despite full cooperation from staff and assurances that proper procedures and policies were being followed. No notification was given to the public. Please see email from Colin Lee indicating his desire not to go public with this situation initially. He also convinced myself and my colleagues not to appeal his decision as it would delay the reopening of my office.
It should be noted that the RCDSO informed its members on Nov. 2, 2017 that "Public Health Ontario has released new checklists on reprocessing and CORE elements in dental practice settings.” We were given just over one month to attempt to implement all of the guidelines. Whenever a new law comes into effect, a grace period is granted to allow individuals the opportunity to comply. We did not receive such a grace period. Prior to the Nov. 2 email update, dentists were guided by a set of guidelines published in 2010. It should be made clear that this was NOT a standard of practice and the RCDSO left its members to decide how these guidelines should be implemented. Additionally, the fact that I have worked in several offices in Southern Ontario, should count for something. I have observed these upstanding dental offices and their infection control practices are identical to mine. ( see Resume)
While the RCDSO was not present at any of the inspections, they were made aware of the Health Unit’s findings after the fact. Since the RCDSO’s mandate is to protect the public, they did their own investigations into the matter and deemed that the public was not placed at risk. To be clear, the Health Unit is now acting on their own accord instead of working with the RCDSO, the governing body of dentists. We have contacted Eric Hoskins, the Minister of Health of Ontario as well as Patrick Brown, our MPP in an attempt to resolve this matter, however, neither party has offered any assistance. (The letter from Eric Hoskins is quite puzzling).
In our society, a member is to be considered innocent until proven guilty. Nevertheless, the Health Unit is not willing to allow me my day in court. I have appealed the actions of Public Health and the hearing has been scheduled for March 13th. However, Public Health is not willing to wait for this date and has decided to act as judge, jury and executioner by releasing a media statement containing false and inaccurate information in an attempt to cause unnecessary panic in the general public. The inspectors working for Public Health have no dental experience and their findings must be questioned. The analogy would be having a plumber inspect a motor vehicle for certification purposes. Furthermore, sound scientific evidence and research dispelling any threat to the public from dentistry as well as questioning the use of their IPAC checklists in the dental office setting has been made available to Public Health but they are unwilling to review any of it. How many other dental offices have been checked in Simcoe County? Was these offices checked in a similar manner? Have their patients been notified?
We are willing to provide any information to demonstrate that our office has been practicing all appropriate and pertinent infection control protocols and to reassure the public that our dental office is a safe practice. My own family members come to my office for dental treatment; if I believed my office was implementing substandard practices I would never allow them to be treated there. For example, my daughter had her wisdom teeth surgery performed at the office last year. Research and scientific evidence that dispute the Health Unit’s course of action is available upon request.
In conclusion, this situation is a career ending event with consequences not only to myself but also to those who work with me. There are over 20 staff members including physicians, dentists, nurses, assistants, hygienists, and office administrators . Each of them have performed their duties with great pride and care. This situation should not diminish their careers. I have lost several of these staff members because of this bad publicity, one of which had 30 years of experience. Furthermore, as we work in an area that struggles with employment, some thought should be given on how to help businesses like ours not destroy it. Lastly, we should not forget the patients that need care. Many of the patients we treat are medically compromised and under the Healthy Smiles Program. Where will these patients go? Toronto?
It took eighteen years to build my practice and only a few months to destroy it.
