Pharmacy Technicians on the Road to Regulation Focus on ...

that areas of potential “disconnect”
regarding the regulation of pharmacies
may be avoided. Accordingly,
enabling provisions respecting remote
dispensing are being written
into these consolidated regulatory
amendments to the DPRA (Drug
and Pharmacies Regulation Act).
It is the College’s intent to introduce
these as a complete package
to the government. In addition,
stakeholder consultations and interprofessional
health college meetings
have begun on the enhanced
scope of practice. Focus groups of
front-line practitioners will also be
conducted around the province to
inform the drafting of regulations
regarding scope.
By-law amendments
Ratified
Following circulation of a new general
operating by-law, which amends
various sections of the current bylaw
to incorporate changes to the
elections procedures, integration of
technician members and other miscellaneous
matters to bring it in line
with current procedures and reflect
best practices, the by-law was also
further re-examined internally by
legal counsel to determine how to
address implementation in the event
that proclamation of the registration
regulation and <strong>Pharmacy</strong> Act
changes enabling registration of
pharmacy technicians was not received
in time for elections. To that
end, changes were proposed to several
sections to enable the by-law
to come into force with provisions
for election of technicians to take
place upon passage of the regulatory
and legislative changes, should these
occur later.
Council ratified the by-laws
which became effective immediately.
The new by-law, and the
schedules, can be accessed on the
College website at www.ocpinfo.
com.
Council Ratifies proposed
amendments to the Drug
and Pharmacies Regulation
Act
Subsequent to Council’s consideration
and preliminary approval in
December 2009 of proposed
amendments to the Drug and Pharmacies
Regulation Act (DPRA) to
consolidate Regulations 551/90
and 297/96 and to amend certain
portions of the Regulations, the
consolidated version of the Regulations,
together with a comparison
chart, was circulated to members
for comment.
Following the review of received
comments, some of which required
simple clarification and others which
repeated past submissions, five additional
amendments were made:
- Replacing the definition of “electronic
signature” with that in
the Electronic Commerce Act:
(i.e. “electronic information that a
person creates or adopts in order
to sign a document and that is in,
attached to or associated with the
document”)
- clarification that pseudoephedrine
and ephedrine are drugs
in Ontario. Although it was the
intention of both the College and
the Ministry of Health and Long-
Term Care that these substances
remain drugs when the definition
of a drug was revised in 2007, both
parties consider it important to
provide greater clarity since these
products are now also designated
as natural health products. Provision
(f) of the definition of a drug
will ensure that they are sold in
a manner which protects against
diversion and illicit use
- A change in wording to the section
concerning the knowledge
of the designated manager of the
specifics of any agreement where
a pharmacy discloses non patient
identifiable information to a third
party. A copy of such an agreement
would not necessarily be
required to be provided to the
designated manager, but they must
be made aware of its existence
and be assured of the fact that no
patient identifiable information
would be included
- definition of “benefit” as it relates
to conflict of interest is clarified to
exclude those permitted by law
- clarification of section 40.(2) to
include “all prescription records” for
maintenance of records as opposed
to “written” prescriptions.
U of T’s Satellite IPG Pilot
receives approval
Council approved the University of
Toronto’s proposal for a one-time
pilot delivery of a satellite IPG Program
in Egypt in spring 2010.
The faculty at the University of
Toronto has been considering strategies
to improve access to the IPG
program both geographically and
financially and this program is being
offered as a one time pilot, with
pharmacyconnection • May/June 2010
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