(MENAFN- GlobeNewsWire - Nasdaq) TORONTO, Sept. 09, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In December 2018 a CBC Marketplace undercover investigation discovered that plastic surgeon, Dr. Martin Jugenburg, was filming his patients through surveillance cameras placed throughout his clinic, which is located in the toney Fairmont Royal York Hotel. The cameras were not just in public spaces, but running 24/7 in consultation rooms, examination rooms, the pre-operative room, and even in his operating theatre. The cameras filmed, and some Audio recorded patients throughout their visits to the clinic, including filming the patients in various states of undress. Dr. Jugenburg could access the current and stored footage whenever he wished from an application running on his phone and other computer equipment.
Ontario's Information and Privacy Commissioner investigated. In its Decision released on September 20, 2019, it found that the“Clinic's blanket use of surveillance cameras contravened the Personal Health Information Protection Act, 2004.” It concluded,“The blanket use of surveillance cameras for non-health care purposes in this context (particularly in pre-operative, operating and examination rooms where a patient is most vulnerable and has a higher expectation of privacy) is unacceptable.”
Many of Dr. Jugenburg's patients agree that this conduct was unacceptable. In 2021 a class action was certified against the plastic surgeon, asserting that the surveillance cameras breached the patients' privacy, and that Dr. Jugenburg was negligent and breached his fiduciary duty owed to his patients. There are over 7,000 members of the class ranging from patients who underwent extensive full-body cosmetic surgery to those who attended the clinic for consultations or to obtain injection treatments.
The College of Physicians and Surgeons also has ruled that Dr. Jugenburg's conduct was disgraceful, dishonourable, or unprofessional. He was suspended for six months for this, and other findings of misconduct.
Despite the findings of the CPSO and the IPC, Dr. Jugenburg continues to defend the class action lawsuit. The action has now been scheduled for a 5 week trial that is set to start in a little over a year, on November 17, 2025.
The law firms of Howie, Sacks & Henry LLP , Waddell Phillips PC and Beyond Law LLP are class counsel in the lawsuit.
More information about the class action and how it may affect you if you were a patient at the Toronto Cosmetic Surgery Institute between January 1, 2017 and December 13, 2018 is available on the law firms' websites.
Howie, Sacks & Henry LLP
Email: ...
Tel: 1-877-771-7006
Waddell Phillips PC
Email: ...
Tel: 647-261-4486
Beyond Law LLP
Email: ...
Tel: 416-287-0199
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