Massage therapist suspended for using cellphone - Prince George Citizen

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A Prince George massage therapist will serve 10 days worth of suspensions for using his cellphone while treating patients.

Trevor Scott admitted to the acts after an undercover investigator, in May 2019, posed as a patient and caught him using his phone with one hand while giving the massage with the other, according to postings on the College of Massage Therapists of British Columbia website.

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The investigator had been hired in response to complaints from two clients.

Scott used the phone to scroll through messages, communicate with staff at the front desk of his clinic and play puzzles and games as a way to "remain alert and awake."

One of the patients said she felt a poke on her wrist from the phone a few times in one instance and in another, he tried to hide the phone from her when she turned to speak to him. The investigator found he was tapping and swiping for more than 15 minutes of the treatment.

In all the cases, the patients and the investigator were lying face down.

There was no indication that Scott used the phone to take videos or photos of the patients while giving treatment but nonetheless, a patient who is unclothed and sees him using a cellphone is "likely to become distressed and upset."

Scott was "not treating those patients with respect or acting in their best interests, and the effectiveness and safety of his treatments may have been compromised," the College further said.

Scott was issued two five-day suspensions with the first to begin this Friday and the second to begin immediately afterwards He was also fined $1,500, ordered to pay the $1,500 cost of the investigation and ordered to take intensive remedial course work on professional ethics and boundaries.

And Scott was prohibited from having his cellphone with him while giving treatment.