OB/GYN patient complaints up 29% over previous year: Ontario’s patient ombudsman
New data shows more people are filing complaints about obstetrical and gynecological care in Ontario, with insensitivity, poor communication and lack of trauma awareness among the most common grievances.
Ontario’s Patient Ombudsman Craig Thompson says his office received 168 complaints between April 2024 and March 2025, compared to 130 over the same period the previous year — a 29 per cent increase.
Complainants also detailed experiencing a lack of responsive care to factors such as history of sexual assault, pregnancy complications, miscarriages, and difficult births.
Many complaints were related to pregnancy, childbirth and postnatal care provided in hospitals, he said. There’s also been an increase in complaints regarding services at community surgical and diagnostic centres that do ultrasounds, X-rays and surgical procedures.
Complaints are filed online, by email, fax or mail, and then reviewed by the ombudsman, who engages with both parties to reach a resolution.
National data from the Canadian Medical Protective Association suggests patient complaints across medical disciplines are on the rise, with more than 4,045 in 2020, up from 3,379 in 2016. They said many complaints showed communication was an underlying issue.
The Ontario ombudsman’s data will be published later this year in an annual report on the overall number and themes of health-system complaints, but Thompson shared the OB/GYN numbers with The Canadian Press in the wake of an investigation published last week that included several patients alleging neglectful care going back almost a decade by the same Toronto doctor.
The patients described traumatic experiences while under the care of OB/GYN Dr. Esther Park, with some alleging they were not adequately informed about certain procedures performed at her clinic and the hospital she worked at for 25 years.
Dr. Park stopped practising medicine in April. Attempts to reach her for comment were unsuccessful.
In the ombudsman’s last annual report released in March, the number of obstetrical and gynecological-related complaints in the province was described as an “emerging concern” that Thompson said he would continue to monitor.
While Thompson said the way women’s health is delivered in Ontario has been an issue for many years, he said what’s new is the number of grievances about obstetrics and gynecology, and the nature of the complaints.
“We are in that role of a bit of the canary in the coal mine. We identify early signals of a problem,” he said, explaining that annual reports are shared with the province’s ministries of health, long-term care, and relevant health agencies.
The patient ombudsman’s role was created by the provincial government in 2016 to help resolve complaints and conduct investigations on issues of public interest.
Get weekly health news
Receive the latest medical news and health information delivered to you every Sunday.
Thompson calls his office the “last resort” for patients who are not satisfied with a hospital’s response to a complaint, and who need help reaching a resolution. But he also tries to pinpoint if a broader issue needs to be investigated and what can be done.
Thompson said he tries to determine: “Where’s the breakdown? Is this a breakdown in policy? Is this a breakdown in education or training of our team? Is this a breakdown in practice? Is the practice that we’ve adopted not meeting the mark?”
He would not disclose if he’s conducting a broader investigation of obstetrical and gynecological care complaints. His last report included two pages on the practice, identifying “broader organizational issues, including a lack of trauma-informed care approaches that, if addressed, could improve the experiences of patients and their families.”
Dr. Heather Millar, an obstetrician and gynecologist at Women’s College Hospital and Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, says a trauma-informed approach begins with an awareness of how common painful childhood memories, sexual assaults and triggering medical encounters are. It also includes strategies to avoid traumatizing or retraumatizing a patient.
She said she first came across the method in 2015.
“I was working with a physician at the time who used trauma-informed care principles and I realized that this was something that we should all be doing and that really should be implemented across our specialty,” Millar said.
The premise is to treat each patient as though they have a trauma history, for instance asking permission before touching them and covering their bodies during an exam to facilitate an environment that feels safe.
Since then, Millar has been helping integrate the approach at hospitals, including within Mount Sinai’s obstetric emergency training, and she teaches trauma-informed care to residents at the University of Toronto.
She’s also working on national guidelines with the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada (SOGC) to formally implement this approach as a standard of care.
“We’re much more conscious now of how common trauma is in the general population … and also how the encounters and procedures in our specialty can be traumatic for people,” she said, referencing vaginal exams that can feel invasive, and emergencies during deliveries, which may trigger painful memories.
Dr. Glenn Posner, vice chair of education for the department of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Ottawa, said when he was a resident more than 20 years ago, trauma-informed care was not talked about. But now, he sees residents bring this sensitive approach to their patients, for instance asking for permission multiple times before an exam, or showing them how a speculum feels on their leg before using it.
But the stressful demands of the job and sheer volume of patients can at times hinder sensitive communication, and can translate into body language that patients will pick up on, he said.
“Having a conversation with somebody with your hand on the door knob is perceived as you’re rushing them. But you can spend the same amount of time or even less if you come in, pull up a chair, sit down.”
Similarly, Millar said there are small changes that can make patients feel more in control, such as raising the head of a hospital bed so that the physician can make eye-contact with them throughout an exam.
In response to an email from The Canadian Press containing the ombudsman’s new data, the ministry of health said it expects every hospital and health-care partner to uphold the highest standard of patient care. They referenced existing patient safety legislation and regulation, but did not say what they would do about the increase in obstetrical and gynecological complaints.
“One complaint about the safety of care is too many,” a spokesperson for the ministry of health said in a statement.
The SOGC said it would not comment on the data since it has not seen the full report.
The head of an advocacy group that speaks out on behalf of patients says she’s seen similar reports for years without any investment in changes.
“I am not surprised that there are more complaints that are coming in this particular area of practice,” said Kathleen Finlay, chief executive officer of the Center for Patient Protection.
Finlay, who has worked as a patient advocate for almost 20 years, said she often hears OB/GYN patients say, “They didn’t listen to me. I had a lot of concerns and I felt I was just being rushed through the process. My questions weren’t being answered.”
She said not enough is being done at the regulatory level to make changes to improve patient experience.
“There are many issues that are, from a woman’s perspective, very traumatic and so much of it is about not being treated with the respect that they deserve.”
Ontario Provincial Police are set to host a town hall in Quadeville, Ont., this evening to answer questions from residents about an attack on an eight-year-old child that was initially linked to an animal.
Police have arrested a 17-year-old boy in the case and he faces charges of attempted murder and sexual assault with a weapon.
Members of the small community 170 kilometres west of Ottawa say they were in shock after hearing about the arrest and hope to get clarity at today’s event in the town’s community centre.
Local resident Christine Hudder says she wants to know how police came up with the animal attack theory and why families were told for days to keep their children indoors.
Get breaking National news
For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen.
The victim was found with life-threatening injuries on June 24 after she was reported missing, and remains in hospital.
Police say they are planning to give as much information as possible to locals given that an investigation is still underway.
A Burlington, Ont., mother was unsettled to discover that an old photo of her children had been used in a fraudulent GoFundMe that attempted to elicit donations in connection the recent Texas floods.
Julie Cole told Global News that a friend had contacted her on social media to say that an old photo of her six children was being used in an attempt to collect ill-gotten gains.
“She reached out to me and she was like, ‘Hey, here’s a link to a GoFundMe. Sorry this has happened to you, but obviously a picture of your kids has been used without your consent and it’s being used for a GoFundMe to raise money, to help a family dealing with the Texas floods,’” she said.
Cole explained that the fake GoFundMe, which has since been removed by the company, was looking for donations to support a widowed mother of six kids in connection.
At least 120 people have died while more than 100 others remain unaccounted for as a result of the flooding, including 27 children and councilors from Camp Mystic.
“They were trying to raise $40,000 because of the three daughters had been victims of the Texas floods,” Cole said. “And the way it was presented felt very much like they were part of maybe that girl’s camp.”
Julie Cole told Global News that a friend had contacted her on social media to make that an old photo of her six children was being used in an attempt to collect ill-gotten gains.
Provided
Cole said once the listing was sent to her, she immediately contacted GoFundMe to get the fundraiser taken down.
Get breaking National news
For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen.
By Wednesday morning, the company had done so and in a statement to Global News, GoFundMe said that the fundraiser did not receive any donations and the account has been banned from creating any further fundraisers on the platform.
“GoFundMe has the most robust donor protection processes of any platform of our kind. We have round the clock trust and safety support, humans and technology making sure funds will get to where they are intended,” the statement offered.
After contacting the company, Cole said she shared the incident on her social media pages to raise awareness.
“So I did put it on my Facebook and I put it in my LinkedIn as like a heads-up learning experience kind of thing and there was a lot of outrage,” she said.
Cole also noted that while she is disappointed by the incident, she is well aware that her troubles are miniscule in comparison to those affected by the flooding.
“I do feel a little bit in myself that what I’m feeling is in no way comparable to what the actual families are feeling who have gone through the tragedies of the flooding,” she said.
The photo came from an old blog post she had written 16 years ago. Cole can date the picture as the baby in the photo is now getting ready to go for his driver’s test.
“I’m one of those, like, OG mommy bloggers from 20 years ago. So my kids have been on the internet. They have been sort of in the public eye,” she explained.
“And I know the risk is out there. And I think parents need to remember that, that their kids’ photos can be just screenshotted and used without consent. So there’s one lesson.
“I felt a little, well, very unsettled about it, particularly because of what it was being used for.”
In addition to being a parenting blogger, she also helped found Mabel’s Labels, which offers washable labels for kids clothing and other school items, in an effort to keep them out of the lost and found.
Julie Cole and her six kids in 2025.
Provided
Being a spokesperson for the company while raising six kids keeps her in the parenting sphere and she offered some other advice to parents about the images and social media.
“I think parents just have to be mindful and aware that once it’s out there, you know you’d like to think you’ll get consent or you’ll give consent if somebody asks or they want to use it, but people will just take it and they can just take,” she said.
“You have to be especially careful now with AI, because these photos can be altered.”
She also warned parents to check with their kids as they get older to see if they are OK with pics being posted and that people should be mindful of where they are sharing their donations.
“Another lesson out of this is people need to really be cautious and know where they’re putting their fundraising dollars,” Cole said.
© 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
ARC World may be a celebration of Asian culture, but organizer Clement Chu hopes that people from all backgrounds come and enjoy the one-day festival in downtown Toronto.
Food, shops, music and speakers will all be featured at Toronto Metropolitan University’s Kerr Hall on Saturday, with a celebrity basketball game including actor Simu Liu and former Toronto Raptors star Jeremy Lin the day’s finale. Chu said that there will be something for everyone, whether they have ties to Asia or not.
“The stories that some of these people are telling here, it’s not just necessarily about them being Asian but it’s a story of resilience,” he said in a recent phone interview. “These are stories that apply way beyond, the Asian community so we hope people get that out of it.
“We hope people come enjoy the things that come from our culture, whether it’s food or art or entertainment. More than anything else, we want to get young people out and volunteering and making contributions back to the community, because we feel a lot of that was lost during COVID.”
Related Videos
Originally named the Chinese Canadian Youth Athletic Association, the Asian Roots Collective was founded 30 years ago by Chu and his friends to create a safe space to play basketball. Chu said that over time the organization’s mission has broadened to include people with connections to all of Asia and to encompass other “universal languages” that, like basketball, can bring people together even if there are other linguistic or cultural barriers.
Get daily National news
Get the day’s top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.
“We want to showcase all these things that are excellent, that are happening,” said Chu. “So we decided to change the direction of the organization a little bit, because we’re no longer just Chinese, we’re no longer just youth oriented programs, and we’re sure as heck not just athletics.
“We wanted to have a calling card that was more representative of what we’re doing. This year is the first year we’re launching ARC World, which is this convention where we’re celebrating all things Asian.”
The acronym ARC still reflects those roots in basketball, however.
“Because we come from basketball, (the name) is like the three-point arc, your shot arc, but we’re trying to tell a story now so this is a narrative arc,” said Chu. “That was the inspiration behind the name of the organization.”
ARC has come a long way since it was founded in 1995, the same year the Raptors started playing in Toronto. Back then, Chu and other leaders within the organization had to rent basketball courts at local high schools. Now they have their own athletic centre in Markham, Ont.
“We used to make that joke about, ‘oh, you know, one day, as opposed to renting schools, we’d love to have the keys to gym,’ because that’s the dream of every kid, to have the keys to gym so you could shoot around,” he said. “It’s just funny because, like, fast forward, 30 years later, through some of these initiatives, we were able to raise enough money to build our own mini-community centre with a basketball hoop and stuff, but so now we do have the keys to the gym which is pretty, pretty cool.
“The only downside is, I’m so old now that I can’t really play anymore, but the kids now have a place to run around, we have video games there, art, we teach coding, it’s gone far beyond just basketball.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 11, 2025.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
-
Uncategorized1 month agoShop Proud, Eat Proud, Be Proud — Ottawa Canada Day Market This June 28th
-
4 weeks agoCanada’s world junior trial saw juries tossed, intense testimony. Here’s a recap
-
4 weeks agoMeasles circulating in northeastern B.C. community, health officials warn
-
4 weeks agoAnishinabek Nation chief says he briefed Ontario police on protests against Bill 5
-
4 weeks agoRing of Fire road to bring prosperity to First Nation, problems for caribou: report
-
4 weeks agoJagmeet Singh apologizes for attending Kendrick Lamar concert after Drake calls him out
-
4 weeks agoDreaming of a lakeside cottage but can’t afford it? Co-ownership could open that door
-
4 weeks agoFormer major leaguer, Jays doctor Ron Taylor dies