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The Ontario College of Pharmacists has suspended the license of a former pharmacy technician at the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre after she admitted to misappropriating narcotics for her own personal use.
The College found that the woman helped herself to numerous oxycodone tablets between mid-March and mid-June of 2016.
The hospital notified the college about its concerns with the employee’s conduct in June of that year, according to the ruling; the hospital fired her on Aug. 17, 2016.
A panel of the college’s discipline committee found that the woman’s conduct was dishonourable and unprofessional, but it refused to categorize it as “disgraceful,” citing her personal circumstances at the time and the fact that it took place over a relatively short period of time.
Counsel for the college told the discipline panel that, if the woman were to testify, she would say that she began taking the narcotics as a sleep-aid after a shoulder injury and during a period of personal strain. She subsequently saw a counselor, who concluded that she did not have an addiction but was suffering from symptoms of depression.
She is reportedly no longer using controlled substances.
In addition to serving a five month suspension, the woman must undergo ethics training, pay costs of $2,500 to the college, and provide future pharmacy employers for the next two years with copies of the college’s ruling or related documents.
She and those future employers will also have to notify the college about her employment status.