A Â鶹AV surgeon has been awarded $30,000 in damages, after the Hospital Appeal Board (HAB) found that the Interior Health Agency (IHA) repeatedly failed to follow orders to reinstate at Â鶹AV General Hospital (KGH).
The decision, made public in a court filing on June 26, showed that Dr. Malvinder Hoonjan was unfairly treated, as IHA refused to grant him full surgical privileges at KGH.
Hoonjan, who has credentials from Harvard, the University of Texas and Rutgers, moved to Â鶹AV in 2010 and practiced in multiple IHA sites as a vitreo-retinal surgeon.
From 2010 to 2020, he held various types of privileges at Royal Inland Hospital (RIH) in Kamloops, with no conditions of corrections, until IHA cancelled his privileges on July 31, 2020.
In 2019, IHA decided to relocate retinal surgical services from RIH to KGH, and Hoonjan was invited to apply by the executive medical director of IH Central. IHA was in the process of increasing the number of full-time positions within the surgical ophthalmology department.
Hoonjan applied in September 2019 and was interviewed in October, but was not selected. Hoonjan was never notified that his application was unsuccessful and only learned about it through "informal sources."
After a Dec. 2019 meeting with IHA leadership, Hoonjan was left "with the impression that he had no right of appeal of the unsuccessful application for the retinal surgical services job posting at KGH and that there was nothing he could do about that situation."
Based on the meeting, Hoonjan believed his only recourse was to submit a new application for privileges at KGH, which he did, but the application was rejected. He maintained only his limited consulting privileges.
Based on his application being treated as an unsolicited application rather than an appeal of the original hiring process, or a continuation of his RIH privileges, Hoonjan appealed before the HAB.
On Dec. 7, 2022, the HAB ruled in favour of Hoonjan and ordered IHA to grant him active medical staff privileges and equal operating room access at KGH, alongside other vitreo-retinal surgeons.
However, when the parties couldn't agree on a reintroduction plan, the HAB issued a second order relying on another surgeon to guide the process. IHA was directed to implement "immediate" steps, including the granting of operating room time and privileges and to cover certain related costs.
The HAB issued two separate cost awards to Hoonjan. The first, in Oct. 2023, was for $10,000 relating to conduct between Dec. 2022 and March 2023.
An additional $20,000 was awarded in July 2024 after IHA's "continued failure" to cooperate, including the failure of senior medical leadership at the IHA, "to give any guidance or instructions to its staff to accommodate the reintroduction" of Hoonjan.
The HAB stressed that the costs were not punitive, but "necessary" to send an appropriate message that conduct which "delays or obfuscates the implementation of an HAB order will not be tolerated."