FORT KENT — A Fort Kent physician described by licensing officials as an “imminent danger to his patients” has been temporarily barred from practicing medicine in Maine.
In an uncommon disciplinary move, the Maine Board of Licensure in Medicine “summarily suspended” Dr. Robert K. Desai, prohibiting him from treating patients for 30 days. Such suspensions are reserved for cases in which patients are deemed at risk.
“The board reviewed information which raised serious concerns about Dr. Desai’s fitness to practice medicine,” the board said in a press release. “Based upon review of the information, the Board determined that Dr. Desai presented an imminent danger to his patients.”
The release included no specific details about the circumstances surrounding the board’s decision. Desai is scheduled for a hearing before the board on June 11.
Desai, a radiologist, worked at Northern Maine Medical Center in Fort Kent earlier this year as a locum physician, or temporary contractor arranged through a staffing agency, said Joanne Fortin, a spokeswoman for the hospital.
Fortin could not provide the dates of Desai’s employment, but said he worked for the hospital for “a matter of weeks” earlier this year. She declined to discuss the circumstances surrounding the loss of his license.
“All I can tell you is it didn’t work out, and we’ve replaced him with another locum radiologist,” Fortin said.
Desai is not related to another physician on staff at NMMC with the same last name, she said.
According to the state medical licensing database, Desai graduated from the SUNY Stony Brook School of Medicine in 1981.
His record lists a business address in Westborough, Mass. Desai did not immediately return a voicemail seeking comment.
A faculty profile for Desai on the website of the University of Massachusetts Medical School, where he formerly worked, listed him as an associate professor of radiology, vice chair of clinical operations, and interim director of body imaging and general radiology at the school.
Desai completed a residency in internal medicine at the Newton-Wellesley Hospital in Massachusetts and in diagnostic radiology at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, D.C., following his graduation from SUNY Stony Brook, according to the profile. He went on to complete a fellowship through Harvard Medical School at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
More information about Desai’s license suspension will be available upon his hearing in June, which is open to the public, according to the medical licensing board.
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