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A doctor whose privileges to practice at a Strathroy hospital were revoked over his COVID-19 vaccination status has lost his court challenge to get them reinstated. 

Ophthalmologist Michael Rogelstad has lost his appeal of a tribunal decision that upheld the Middlesex Hospital Alliance’s move to terminate his privileges, a decision by the divisional court released last week says.  

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The decision by a panel of three Superior Court of Justice divisional court judges is forcing Rogelstad to pay $30,000 for the hospital’s legal costs. 

However, the court left it open for Rogelstad to challenge the Middlesex Hospital Alliance’s mandatory vaccination policy, which remains in place years after the height of the pandemic, by re-applying for hospital privileges.  

“Dr. Rogelstad has a statutory right to reapply for privileges now or in the future and that is the proper course to follow if he wishes to challenge the current reasonableness of the policy,” the divisional court decision said.   

The divisional court said its role was to assess whether the tribunal made a palpable and overriding error when upholding the termination of Rogelstad’s hospital privileges and not judge the move through a present-day lens.  

“It is not the role of Health Professionals Appeal and Review Board or this court to assume primary jurisdiction and decide whether privileges ought to be regranted now, in 2025,” the decision said. 

Following a directive from the province for hospitals to develop COVID-19 vaccination rules, the Middlesex Hospital Alliance in September 2021 announced a mandatory vaccination policy for its health-care workers.

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Rogelstad told the hospital he would not receive the vaccination based on his view that it did not prevent transmission of the virus, the divisional court’s decision said. He was notified that he would lose his privileges if he did not provide proof of COVID-19 vaccination. He declined to comply with the policy and his privileges were suspended as of Dec. 1, 2021. 

Rogelstad made an unsuccessful appeal of the suspension to the hospital’s board of directors in April 2022 followed by another unsuccessful appeal to the Health Professionals Appeal and Review Board, an independent agency that hears cases regarding physicians’ hospital privileges and reviews decisions by professional regulators in the health sector.  

The Health Professionals Appeal and Review Board released its decision in April 2024. 

Rogelstad appealed the board’s decision arguing, among other things, that the tribunal erred in the admissibility of expert evidence, provided inadequate reasons and did not appropriately assess the reasonableness of the hospital’s vaccination policy.  

Rogelstad’s lawyers could not be reached for comment Sunday.  

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In Ontario, doctors are not hospital employees but operate their own professional corporations and provide care to patients at hospitals where they are granted privileges to practise. Hospitals have medical advisory panels which make recommendations to the board of directors on whether to grant, suspend or revoke the privileges of physicians. 

The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario’s public directory said Rogelstad is an active member and does not have any discipline history listed.  

Rogelstad has clinic locations outside of hospitals and maintains privileges to practice at the Wilson Memorial General Hospital in Marathon, east of Thunder Bay, the college’s public registry says. 

jbieman@postmedia.com

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