A Merritt-area nurse wants a B.C. Supreme Court judge to throw out a B.C. College of Nurses and Midwives decision that found she overprescribed methadone.
Marcia Gofsky filed for a judicial review last month, claiming she was denied procedural fairness when the college failed to consider an entire set of written notes that she contends prove her innocence.
Gofsky, a registered nurse for 27 years, worked out of the Nicola Valley Hospital’s mental health and substance abuse department as a qualified prescriber of opioid agonist therapy.
She was handed a suspension as a result of the investigation.
According to her lawsuit, in late fall of 2024, she was informed by her manager not to come to work due to an Interior Health investigation into numerous allegations of her prescribing practices.
The matter was referred to the B.C. College of Nurses and Midwives, which reached out in March to Gofsky, giving her an opportunity to respond to questions.
The lawsuit stated Gofsky was at that time recovering from a brain injury and not operating at full cognitive capacity. Meanwhile, her manager had advised she take responsibility for wrongdoing.
“In her altered, brain-injured state, Ms. Gofsky did not have the capacity to do anything else or advocate for herself throughout this experience,” the lawsuit stated.
According to the court filing, Gofsky wasn't given the chance to submit her own written submissions to the committee, nor was she asked to participate in an interview as part of the college’s investigation.
The investigation ultimately determined Gofsky’s prescribing practices showed a significant disregard for her client’s safety and that she was practicing outside her scope as a registered nurse, which was reckless and in breach of professional standards.
According to her lawsuit, Gofsky has learned the committee only reviewed her electronic notes and charts in making its decision, and did not review or consider her paper-written notes that were located in her office filing cabinets at Nicola Valley Hospital.
“Given the seriousness of the complaint and allegations, the inquiry committee reasonably and diligently ought to have located and reviewed those cabinets,” Gofsky’s petition states.
“The notes in those cabinets would have shown Ms. Gofsky was following the prescribing habits of Dr. Soderberg and modelling her prescribing habits and decisions based on the prescription each client had been receiving from Dr. Soderberg. In this way, Ms. Gofsky was following the proper and established protocol for prescribing.”
The lawsuit goes on to state that Gofsky could have alerted the committee to the existence of the records if interviewed, and she would have been exonerated if they had seen those notes.
The lawsuit added the nature and volume of Gofsky's work does not leave her the "capacity" to convert all of her written charts into electronic format.
The college’s inquiry committee’s finding was made in June. Gofsky’s suit asks the court to overturn that decision and refer the matter back to a new committee.
“The procedural fairness owed in the case at bar is moderately high, due to its disciplinary nature,” the suit goes on to state, adding Gofsky had a spotless record prior to this decision.
