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Medical board lifts suspension of Las Vegas OB-GYN

Updated October 8, 2024 - 12:09 pm

A Nevada medical licensing board has lifted the suspension of a Las Vegas OB-GYN it previously found had engaged in disreputable conduct with patients.

In lifting the suspension, the Nevada State Board of Medical Examiners gave Dr. George Chambers more time to comply with conditions it imposed a year ago, including paying a fine and board costs and completing training, according to a board order.

In September 2023, the board determined the doctor had violated the Medical Practice Act by offering two patients $1,000 apiece to pose nude for photographs he said would be used to advertise his gynecological cosmetic surgery practice.

One of the two patients criticized the board on Monday for giving Chambers “chance after chance after chance.”

“He’s going to keep practicing, and they (the board) are going to continue being lenient with him,” said Angela, who spoke with the Review-Journal on the condition that only her first name be used. The former patients’ names were not in the complaint.

Chambers’ attorney praised the decision. “It was the right and fair decision, as some of the probationary conditions placed on Dr. Chambers’ license made it very difficult for him to obtain employment, which in turn, led to his inability to pay the fees and costs previously ordered by the Board,” attorney Libo Agwara wrote in an email.

Chaperone must be present

In July of this year, the board’s investigative committee summarily suspended Chambers’ license after he failed to meet a March deadline to complete mandated ethics and professional-boundaries training and to pay a $6,000 fine and $54,000 in procedural costs. On Sept. 3, a hearing officer found that the suspension was appropriate and recommended that the doctor’s license remain suspended, according to the order.

At a regular board meeting on Sept. 13, Chambers asked for more time to pay the fine and costs. In an affidavit, he said that he has been unable to comply because of an “inability to secure employment as a result of board-imposed restrictions” as well as a “contentious and expensive divorce.”

The board agreed to allow the doctor to make payments over 24 months. It also agreed to count a prior training course toward the required training.

Board staff is working with Chambers to have him complete the remaining training, Deputy Executive Director Sarah Bradley wrote in an email.

Chambers also requested that the board remove a requirement that he be chaperoned during interactions with patients. He said he had no plans to resume his cosmetic vaginal rejuvenation practice, which he said led to the complaints against him, and that he would concentrate on obstetrics and gynecology. The board denied this request.

In the last few days, Chambers has promoted on social media that since 2013 he has been doing labiaplasty and vaginoplasty, which are cosmetic procedures.

A year ago the board determined that Chambers had committed violations including two counts of engaging in conduct that violates the trust of a patient and exploits the relationship with the patient for financial or other personal gain; one count of continual failure to practice medicine properly; and one count of disreputable conduct.

It found that the preponderance of evidence did not support counts related to allegations of an inappropriate exam with a third patient, who described it as painful and humiliating.

The board then revoked Chambers’ license for two years but suspended the revocation as long as he complied with its conditions, which also included refraining from photographing patients.

The Review-Journal interviewed two of the three women whose claims were included in the investigative committee’s original complaint against Chambers.

Several other former patients also have spoken with the Review-Journal about complaints of alleged inappropriate conduct they filed with the board against the doctor. One has filed a lawsuit.

Chambers was licensed in Nevada in 2003 and had not previously been disciplined by the board.

Contact Mary Hynes at mhynes@reviewjournal.com or at 702-383-0336. Follow @MaryHynes1 on X.

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