Denturists' college on verge of government takeover

Government officials in Ontario, Canada, may appoint a supervisor to take over the helm of the College of Denturists of Ontario (CDO) before the end of this month.

This would be the first time the government has appointed someone to oversee a healthcare professionals' regulatory body in the province.

Dozens of Ontario denturism students who received failing grades in their exams last year are among the many people who support the provincial government's unprecedented stance.

Sixteen of 28 denturism students in the most recent graduating denturism class at George Brown College in Toronto failed their final exams. In addition, all nine students from Trillium College in Toronto who had advanced to the final stage of their exams did not pass.

Among the students who failed was the George Brown class gold medalist, Petya Simeonova, DD. She and her classmates were shocked at how many of them were rejected by the CDO and how the organization handled the appeal process.

"Nothing the CDO management did was done properly; for example, after we appealed we were supposed to receive responses within five weeks but it took 17 to 19 weeks," Simeonova said. "But I'm not surprised it was a battle, since CDO President Gus Koroneos told our class before our final exam -- and this is on tape -- that there are too many denturists in the market and the CDO would make the exam ‘very difficult.' "

Calls to the CDO for comment were not returned.

Health minister steps in

Simeonova and her colleagues tried to appeal the exam results, but the CDO stonewalled them. Frustrated, they wrote letters to the minister of health and long-term care for Ontario, Deb Matthews, PhD, and the province's fairness commissioner, as well as contacted several media outlets.

After receiving complaints about the CDO's exam adjudication and other examples of apparent impropriety, such as the college's move to take over malpractice insurance for Ontario denturists, Matthews responded by notifying CDO officials last spring that she was selecting an independent review/audit team (PricewaterhouseCoopers) to examine the CDO and its governing council's actions.

Then, on December 8, Matthews wrote Koroneos and the CDO council to inform them that PricewaterhouseCoopers' report "identifies a number of significant deficiencies in the college's practices and procedures. It raises serious concerns about the quality of the administration and management of the college, its ability to administer the legislative scheme, and perform the functions and powers imposed on the college, its council, and committees under [Ontario law]."

These problems include the CDO council's rewording a bylaw last March -- several days after Matthews announced she was going to investigate the CDO's activities and had ordered the college not to alter its bylaws -- to stipulate that CDO members must purchase liability insurance "as approved by the college, in the minimum amount of $2,000,000 for each occurrence." Denturists in the province currently purchase insurance through the Denturist Association of Ontario.

The health minister warned that the investigation's findings were serious enough that she considered it "appropriate and necessary" to recommend that a supervisor be appointed for the college. She has given the CDO until January 22 to respond.

Simeonova recently succeeded in being allowed to retake the final exam -- at a cost of $5,085 (Canadian) -- which she passed. A colleague of hers also retook the exam, and after failing again -- this time by only 0.55% -- and being made to wait 120 working days for a response to her appeal, she also was granted a passing grade.

Others have not been so lucky and have spent more than $60,000 on lawyers' fees in their attempts to be allowed to retake the final exam and to be marked fairly, according to Simeonova. All of them are hoping a supervisor will be appointed to take over the CDO and put an end to the irregularities.