Latest news with #HCCC
Cision Canada
a day ago
- Business
- Cision Canada
New report says Canada faces a health security emergency -- and the fix could unlock economic growth
OTTAWA, ON, June 25, 2025 /CNW/ - A new report from the Public Policy Forum (PPF) is calling on the federal government to recognize that Canada faces a national health security emergency and must address escalating threats to the country's health and economic security. With geopolitical instability and declining U.S. leadership in global health, the report warns that Canada must act quickly to modernize how it regulates and approves medicines, as well as build resilience in its life sciences sector. Supply chain disruptions resulting from U.S. trade policy, the erosion of public trust in science and an underinvestment in domestic businesses have all exposed serious vulnerabilities, which, if left unchecked, pose direct threats to the health of Canadians. Titled Canada's Code Red: An urgent playbook to build an economy-boosting life sciences sector, the report highlights the value of Canada's life sciences sector as an investment that will yield health and economic returns. It argues that the threat of an emergency demands a new sense of urgency, with innovative solutions that include: streamlining regulatory processes, enabling more flexible and rapid decision-making and removing bureaucratic bottlenecks that delay life sciences investment and product approvals. Recognition of a national health security emergency would also send a powerful signal to international investors, provincial partners and industry leaders that Canada is committed to becoming a global hub for health innovation and commercialization. The report marks the launch of PPF's new Healthy Canadians, Competitive Canada (HCCC) research program. Under the umbrella of PPF's Mission Canada initiative, the HCCC program will document links between a vibrant life sciences sector and the country's overall economic and social success. "Canada must prioritize resilience, innovation, and self-reliance," the report notes. "The newly elected federal government has an unparalleled opportunity to redefine Canada's life sciences landscape by embracing urgency, dismantling bureaucratic barriers and fostering a culture of innovation." With the right approach, the report says that: "…. Canada can transform its life sciences sector into a cornerstone of national strength — one that protects its citizens' health while contributing significantly to economic prosperity, ensuring healthy Canadians within a competitive Canada." To enable this, the report recommends a series of 'plays': Recognize that Canada faces a national health security emergency, and that meaningful change within regulatory bodies and among government decision-makers must quickly boost the life sciences sector; Fast-track the rollout of Health Emergency Readiness Canada (HERC) to coordinate pandemic preparedness and biomanufacturing capacity; Create a Canadian life sciences performance scorecard to track progress in R&D, talent, infrastructure and investment; Recruit top global talent through a coordinated national life sciences workforce strategy — in particular, fast-tracked immigration and academic placement for U.S. researchers; Adopt a 'made in Canada' strategy to prioritize domestic innovation and reduce reliance on foreign supply chains; and Unlock Canadian health data as a national asset for research and commercialization. "This report is a call to action for policymakers in Canada to respond with determination in supporting Canada's life sciences sector," said Inez Jabalpurwala, President and CEO of the Public Policy Forum. "The vital importance of the sector to Canadians' overall health, as well to the economy as a whole, has long been clear — it must now be addressed with pandemic-level urgency." Written by journalist Christopher Waddell, the report was informed in part by the insights generated by PPF's Life Sciences Forum Leadership Table, co-chaired by Mark Lievonen, principal of JML Advisory Services and former co-chair of Canada's COVID-19 Vaccine Task Force, and Dr. Ilse Treurnicht, managing partner at TwinRiver Capital. "The good news is that with the right policy decisions and decisive action we can turbocharge growth of the life science sector," Ms. Jabalpurwala said, "ensuring our businesses are protecting the health of Canadians, as well as boosting economic growth."
News.com.au
05-06-2025
- Health
- News.com.au
Sydney plastic surgeon, Dr Tobias Pincock, blames shocking drug test result on bagels
A scandal-plagued Sydney surgeon has once again been hauled in front of medical authorities, this time after testing positive for a slew of illicit drugs. Dr Tobias Pincock, throughout his career as a plastic surgeon, has been found to have performed a nose job on a patient 45 minutes after they suffered a cardiac arrest, losing $500,000 of his patient's money after convincing them to invest in a fund he majority-owned, and now getting done for being on illicit drugs while working. Australia's medical regulator, the Health Care Complaints Commission (HCCC), on Tuesday released its findings from a tribunal held in late 2024, which investigated a complaint against Dr Pincock. The complaint alleged that Dr Pincock breached the conditions on his registration by 'testing positive for illicit drugs, failing to attend drug screening on a number of occasions, providing a number of dilute urine samples' and 'failing to attend for treatment and monitoring.' Due to past positive tests, Dr Pincock was required to undertake periodic as well as random drug testing, but throughout the testing, Dr Pincock tested positive for cocaine, Endone, Temazepam, Endep, quetiapine, lignocaine, oxycodone, morphine, codeine, opiates and benzodiazepines. Dr Pincock provided the tribunal with many explanations for these positive results. Urinary drug testing on 13 January 2020 and 18 May 2022 indicated Dr Pincock had self-administered an amphetamine and an opioid, respectively. Dr Pincock claimed that he had either eaten several poppy seed bagels on the day of testing or the previous day, and that this was possibly the cause of a false positive result. However, the HCCC found 'at a time after (Dr Pincock) was tested on 18 May 2022, he photographed a packet of bagels, a toaster and a knife and sent that photo to the Medical Council. 'It is clear that this photo was not taken at the time the bagels were eaten but at the time he sent the photograph to the Medical Council, and tolerably clear that the practitioner, in effect, re-set the scene from earlier by posing the bagels with the toaster etc.' In his statement to the tribunal, Dr Pincock said he had not 'intentionally acted to be in breach of his conditions', yet the tribunal found on several occasions 'that is exactly what he did'. Dr Pincock came to the notice of medical regulators in 2016 when a complaint was made which alleged that he had used nitrous oxide recreationally. During an assessment by Dr Robert Fisher, Dr Pincock allegedly admitted to self-administering nitrous oxide to manage a panic attack. This was far from Dr Pincock's first brush with medical authorities. In 2011, Dr Pincock was 'reprimanded in the strongest terms' by a medical committee for performing a nose job on a patient 45 minutes after they had suffered a cardiac arrest. The patient required resuscitation and three defibrillations yet Dr Pincock allegedly felt that the patient would be 'disappointed' if the surgery didn't happen and 'might be reluctant to try again at a later date.' In 2018, Dr Pincock was also charged with the alleged assault of a 10-year-old boy and handed an apprehended violence order to stay away from the child. In January, Dr Pincock was found guilty of professional misconduct and barred from practising medicine for 18 months after encouraging two patients to invest over $500,000 into a trust he majority owned. The HCCC alleged that in 2015, Dr Pincock encouraged one of his patients to invest $335,000 into the 'Australian Allergy Centre' trust while both still employing her and continuing the doctor-patient relationship. The patient alleged Dr Pincock made the representation that 'the investment would mean that her children with disabilities would be financially taken care of for life and that the return on her investment would be $5,000,000 in five years.' The Civil and Administrative Tribunal of NSW (NCAT) found that 'Dr Pincock did not know, even in general terms, how much the [clinic] business was worth or would be worth in five years' time.' Dr Pincock is currently barred from practising medicine until mid-2026 as a result of earlier findings. Orders from his latest tribunal hearing render him unable to re-register as a clinician for 9 months, which will expire within the timeframe of his earlier orders. Dr Pincock charged with any criminal wrongdoing in relation to what was raised in the HCCC proceedings.
India Today
21-05-2025
- Health
- India Today
Indian-origin Sydney doctor sues tribunal after licence suspended over vaginal test
An Indian-origin doctor, Mohanadas Balasingham, was barred in Sydney, Australia, from practising for three years after he allegedly asked a female patient about her sexual history and touched her inappropriately. Balasingham has denied all the allegations and filed an AUD 20-million counter-claim against the New South Wales Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT), which debarred him from practice for three NCAT heard last month that the doctor asked the patient inappropriate questions about her sexual history, according to a report in The Daily Mail. Balasingham is a General Practitioner and was first registered as a medical practitioner in India in 1987 and then in New South Wales in woman visited Balasingham's clinic in the western suburb of Merrylands on September 5, 2020, after she missed a period and had stomach cramps, The Daily Mail reported. The questions included the number of sexual partners she had been with as well as when she had first become sexually active, according to the ALLEGEDLY ASKED A SERIES OF INAPPROPRIATE QUESTIONSDr Balasingham also reportedly asked the woman, "how many boyfriends were Nepalese and how many are Australian?"According to the report, the tribunal also heard that he performed a vaginal examination on the patient but did not obtain informed consent or offer her a chaperone.A chaperone is a person who stays in the room with the patient and the doctor, especially during sensitive exams, to make sure everything is appropriate and woman said that during the examination, something didn't feel normal or appropriate to her. She felt uncomfortable. After leaving the medical practice with her partner, she became very upset and was in tears by the time they reached their FOUND GUILTY OF PROFESSIONAL MISCONDUCTThe patient complained to the Health Care Complaints Commission (HCCC) two days later, which was heard by NCAT in month, the tribunal imposed protective orders on Balasingham, barring him from being registered for three years. Balasingham was found guilty of both unsatisfactory professional conduct and professional misconduct on November 28, 2023, The Daily Mail denied all allegations against him during the tribunal also filed an application in court seeking AUD $20 million as compensation, claiming HCCC had fabricated allegations and that the woman had labelled false allegations to extort money from him.
The Guardian
01-04-2025
- Health
- The Guardian
Unregistered Sydney practitioner ‘Injector Josh' accused of administering Botox without qualifications
An unregistered Sydney beauty practitioner who advertises unauthorised Botox injections and 'butt lifts' via Instagram and Snapchat is being investigated by New South Wales health authorities. The man, who performs injectable and invasive cosmetic procedures, goes by the name Injector Josh and uses the social media handles faisalbasim7 and injectorjosh_. He has been the subject of multiple complaints, the NSW Health Care Complaints Commission (HCCC) said in a public health warning on Tuesday. Sign up for the Afternoon Update: Election 2025 email newsletter The commission said the individual does not hold the necessary qualifications to lawfully perform skin-penetrating procedures in Australia and has administered controlled substances, such as botulinum toxin (Botox), without the appropriate qualifications. He moved between beauty clinics in Sydney, where he performed invasive cosmetic procedures, including anti-wrinkle and dermal filler injections, thread-based facelifts (PDO facelifts) and buttock augmentation ('butt lifts') on numerous people, the commission said. In the warning, the commission said it was 'concerned that this individual is putting public health at risk by performing high-risk procedures without the necessary qualifications and may be misleading people into believing he is legally authorised to do so'. In NSW, anti-wrinkle and filler injections must be prescribed and administered by an authorised health practitioner in authorised premises. The caution comes after a spate of warnings about unauthorised beauty practitioners in NSW. Sign up to Afternoon Update: Election 2025 Our Australian afternoon update breaks down the key election campaign stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion Last month, the HCCC released a public health warning about the Ketthip Beauty Clinic on Sussex Street in Sydney's CBD and imposed an interim prohibition order, preventing the clinic from providing health services of any kind for a period of eight weeks. In January, three women were hospitalised after receiving unregulated at-home anti-wrinkle injections, while in October, the customers of Fresh Cosmetic Clinic were urged to test for blood-borne viruses.
The Guardian
04-03-2025
- Health
- The Guardian
Customers urged to test for HIV and blood-borne viruses after Sydney beauty clinic searched
Customers of a central Sydney beauty clinic have been urged to test for hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV after the discovery of 'highly concerning' infection-control practices, including the use of veterinary equipment, at the business. The New South Wales Health Care Complaints Commission (HCCC) on Monday released a public health warning about the Ketthip Beauty Clinic on Sussex Street and imposed an interim prohibition order, preventing the clinic from providing health services of any kind for a period of eight weeks. Customers who had infusions, injections, microdermabrasion or PDO thread lift procedures at Ketthip were advised to see their GP after health officials inspected the clinic and found that some of its practices may have exposed people to blood-borne viruses including hepatitis B, hepatitis C or HIV. The health order comes after the commission on Thursday executed a search warrant at Ketthip after a number of complaints made about the clinic and its staff. During the search, evidence was found indicating that people working at the clinic were performing invasive cosmetic procedures, including the injection of botulinum toxin – the active ingredient in anti-wrinkle products such as Botox – and fillers without the qualifications and registration to do so. 'Non-registered persons at the clinic may be pretending to be registered medical practitioners and seeking to mislead clients of the clinic', the commission warned in a statement, adding that customers attending Ketthip believed they are undergoing procedures performed by registered health practitioners when they were not. The commission said officials from South Eastern Sydney Local Health District Public Health Unit located and seized large quantities of surgical equipment including scalpels, sutures, cannulas and other medical devices – many of which were clearly marked as being for veterinary use only – from the clinic. The commission said that it was concerned that breast augmentations – highly invasive surgery usually requiring hospital admission – had been performed at the clinic without the involvement of registered health practitioners. Expired controlled medications imported from overseas were found at the clinic, as were prescription-only schedule 4 medicines, such as botulinum toxin, of 'unknown quality, safety and efficacy'. 'The hygiene and infection-control practices of the clinic are highly concerning and pose an immediate risk to the health and safety of the public', the commission said, warning that at least one person 'may have had an adverse reaction to the procedures being performed' by Ketthip. Sign up to Morning Mail Our Australian morning briefing breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion The commission has issued five serious public health warnings about the provision of cosmetic services in the past 10 months after a rise in complaints about non-registered practitioners. Ketthip clinic did not respond to requests for comment. The commission's investigation is continuing.
