Maine doctor files appeal of suspension

FREDERICTON, New Brunswick – A doctor who was based in a Maine border town has appealed the suspension of his license for allegedly misusing his authority to write Canadian prescriptions. Lawyers for Dr. Andre Loiselle of Yarmouth, Maine, said the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New Brunswick acted in a high-handed fashion when it suspended his border-area license in February.

Loiselle, 48, lost his license to prescribe for Canadian patients hours after the college received a faxed message from Ronald Guse of the Manitoba Pharmaceutical Association. “The Manitoba Pharmaceutical Association has documentation showing the New Brunswick-licensed doctor, Dr. Andre Loiselle, is prescribing to patients not attended by him,” Guse wrote.

“I am not certain of the policy within the college, but other provincial physician-licensing bodies indicate it is not acceptable for a physician to sign or co-sign a prescription without attending the patient.”

The prescriptions were apparently filled by an Internet pharmacy in Manitoba and the volume numbered in the hundreds each day.

Loiselle was granted a border-area license in 1988 to treat patients in Madawaska, Maine, and to purchase their prescription medication across the border in Edmundston, New Brunswick, at substantial cost savings.