Dr. Schwarz suspended by College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario

The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario has suspended Dr. Peter Schwarz, a Sault family doctor, from practising medicine.

The College’s website states the suspension, dated March 8, 2019, comes after “the Discipline Committee found that Dr. Peter Robert Schwarz committed an act of professional misconduct, in that he engaged in sexual abuse of a patient.”

Upon suspension, a physician must immediately cease practising medicine and may not resume practice until the suspension is removed.

The College states an adult female patient was sexually abused by Schwarz during two appointments in the fall of 2015.

“On the basis of its assessment of the witnesses’ credibility and the consideration of the evidence as a whole, the Committee accepted Patient A’s version of the events and concluded that Dr. Schwarz engaged in sexual abuse of Patient A by touching of a sexual nature, that is, by touching of her breasts and buttocks during office visits on October 16 and Dec. 4, 2015 in a manner that was not clinically indicated or appropriate,” the College’s website states.

The College also states Schwarz inappropriately touched and made sexual comments to three different nurses on three different occasions in a hospital environment in 2010 and 2012.

A penalty hearing for Schwarz is to be scheduled.

Previously, in May 2018, Schwarz was acquitted of two sex-related charges stemming from the two fall 2015 appointments with the adult female patient by Ontario Court Justice Romuald Kwolek.   

Sault Area Hospital (SAH) suspended Schwarz’s privileges in September 2016, shortly after he was charged with the offences.