INSIDE: - Ontario College of Pharmacists

district ONTARIO
meetings
2006
This year’s district meetings
were held in anticipation of
proposed legislation to
amend the Regulated Health Professions
Act, which introduced new
health professions, including Pharmacy
Technicians. Meetings were
held at various locations around the
province with a breakfast meeting
following the evening meeting
wherever possible. Two teams of
staff and Council members travelled
the province to meet with
members and pharmacy technicians
about the proposed changes. The
final meeting was held in Toronto
via webcast so that members
around the province could participate
in the meeting remotely.
The majority of the meeting
focused on recent developments in
Ontario with regard to regulating
pharmacy technicians. The Health
Professions Regulatory Advisory
Council (HPRAC) has recommended
to the Minister of Health
and Long-Term Care that pharmacy
technicians be regulated as a separate
class within the Ontario College
of Pharmacists. A full update
on progress on this initiative is
included adjacent to this article on
page 12.
Regulated Health
Professions Act
Several changes have been proposed
to the Regulated Health Professions
Act. This is the overarching legislation
which governs all the regulated
health professions in Ontario. Of
significant interest to the Ontario
College of Pharmacists is the proposal
to have one screening committee
for each College which
reviews all inquiries, complaints and
reports that come to the College.
The proposal also supports the use
of alternative resolution processes
to resolve these issues; a direction
that has already been implemented
at OCP. All colleges will have a
Public Outreach (Communications)
program, and all have a new objective
to promote inter-professional
collaboration.
The proposals clearly expect an
increased accountability and transparency
from the health colleges
with respect to public responsibility.
Mandatory public access to a public
register is included. This again is a
direction which the College has
already taken and the public register
is available currently on the
OCP website.
There are proposals for four new
colleges: psychotherapy, naturopathy
and homeopathy, kinesiology
and Traditional Chinese Medicine
& Acupuncture. HPRAC also recommended
that hearing instrument
practitioners and pharmacy technicians
be regulated under existing
colleges.
Bill 124 Fair Access to
Professions Act
The Ministry of Citizenship and
Immigration has proposed new legislation
to ensure fair and consistent
access to regulation by internationally
trained professionals. This
legislation is proposed to extend to a
wide variety of professionals,
beyond the health professions, such
as lawyers, engineers and architects.
It contemplates the appointment of
a Fairness Commissioner to oversee
registration processes and periodic
audits of registration processes to
ensure fairness.
10
Pharmacy Connection January • February 2007