TPH investigation exhausted Dr. Esther Park’s clinic as of July 5. Picard A week after Dr. Park’s resignation from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario on April 30. The investigation was prompted by concerns about the cleaning and disinfection of surgical instruments at her facility. This became a real concern after a patient filed a complaint in September 2023.
On December 17, 2024, Dr. Park’s medical license to practice solely included providing office-based gynecology. Nevertheless, this did not stop her clinic from repeatedly conducting procedures that jeopardized the health and safety of patients. These orbits overlapped with restrictive conditions like endometrial biopsies, IUD insertions, and removal of cervical growths. With over 290,000 patients receiving these procedures between October 10, 2020, and October 10, 2024, this impacts a large swath of patients.
TPH moved quickly to provide additional context to the findings. They mailed letters to about 2,600 patients who had received higher-risk procedures from Dr. Park’s clinic. The letters contained a recommendation to get tested for HIV, hepatitis B, and hepatitis C. Such testing is important. It shields us from future exposure to blood-borne viruses that may have been found due to the cleaning protocol failures uncovered in the investigation.
Back at TPH, by the end of August, they had 622 test results faxed back to them from patients. Based on these results, nine of these participants were positive for hepatitis B. These incidents were all public before this investigation started. Critically, none of the patients tested ever contracted infections directly attributed to Dr. Park’s clinic.
Inspectors from the local public health unit found that Dr. Park’s facility failed to adequately clean and disinfect medical instruments. This very disturbing finding was deemed a serious threat to patient safety. The final report released by TPH details these issues and highlights the need for strict adherence to sterilization protocols in medical settings.
The investigation has concluded—with no new infection cases reported connected to the clinic of course. Nonetheless, TPH strongly encourages patients who received high-risk procedures at Dr. Park’s clinic to seek guidance from their healthcare provider to discuss any need for testing and follow-up care.
