Victims of predatory doctor given few options
MDs' college sues doc for costs but fails to aid his abused patients
Joey Thompson, The Province
Published: Wednesday, November 22, 2006

The organization that keeps watch over B.C. doctors is seeking to recover its out-of-pocket expenses for the inquiry and subsequent register removal of former psychiatrist Richard Golden.

Yet, as a victim points out, the College of Physicians and Surgeons has done zip to help those whose gallant actions halted the sexual predator before he could break in a new crop of emotionally-shaky patients.

In documents filed recently in B.C. Supreme Court, lawyers for the college insist Golden owes them $120,000 for the two days' work last August by the Inquiry Committee which, after a finding of infamous conduct, struck the 48-year-old's name from the medical register.

It's all well and good that the college is looking out for itself and that Golden, currently undergoing treatment for several lately-identified mental illnesses, is too, writes one of his victims, but what about us?

"There is zero support, in the form of counselling or other, offered to a complainant, either during the college investigation or after."

It makes sense that doctors --who cover their own butts by bankrolling a malpractice fund that gives them access to top-notch lawyers as well as pays for court-awarded damages and settlements -- should also pay to help patients found to have been harmed by a member of the profession, as they do in Ontario.

Patients deemed to have been sexually abused by a health professional there have five years to access up to $10,000 in therapy or counselling aid though the province's college of physicians and surgeons.

Patients abused by health professionals in B.C. can only seek redress through civil court, an expensive, arduous and draining process which many aren't emotionally tough enough to take on.

Golden's three victims have chosen to go that route but are fully aware they're facing a tough battle.

The once esteemed child-and- adolescent psychiatrist, having been diagnosed by colleagues with a list of mental disabilities, now is deemed incapable of managing his personal and financial affairs as well as of instructing a lawyer.

It's uncertain where that leaves Golden's victims in their legal quest for compensation from him for pain and suffering as well as for the reckless treatment they suffered.

To further complicate matters, wife and psychiatrist Susan Joy, co-owner of the family clinic on West Broadway, says they're broke. Documents filed in court state Golden is running on empty when assets are stacked up against liabilities. In fact, she says, he's $37,000 in the red.

That said, their schedule of property assets, liabilities and income is silent on the July 2005 sale of their West 32nd Dunbar home to a fellow doctor for $1,048,000.

Nor does the paperwork mention the condo on West 8th that the Goldens bought a year ago for $550,000.

And why is the B.C. college still refusing to ask police to investigate possible criminal charges, given its investigators called Golden the worst of the worst sexual predators?

"We can't breach patient confidentiality," the communications official reiterated yesterday.

Oh, please. The women's names are already out there in court affidavits. Besides, the law governing the college states confidentiality can be set aside if the executive committee deems disclosure is in the public interest.