Transforming and Supporting Patient Care - Health Professions ...

27Chapter 2 – Excellence in Health Profession Regulation: Raising the Bar in OntarioInterprofessional Collaboration: Other JurisdictionsIn Canada and internationally, the environment for redesigning andmodernizing self-regulation to adapt to the new models of integrated caredelivery and pursue regulatory rigour is a dynamic one. Each jurisdiction’sapproach has been unique to the circumstances and health careenvironment and situations where the need for regulatory rigour has arisen.While no single approach has emerged, significant experimentation hastaken place with mixed results in other Canadian jurisdictions, the UnitedStates, Great Britain and elsewhere.As HPRAC noted in the Consultation Discussion Guide, while there havebeen some innovative approaches in other jurisdictions, on balancecollaboration among health regulatory bodies does not appear to be as welldeveloped as interprofessional initiatives at the clinical and educationallevels. 20 However, in several of the jurisdictions that HPRAC surveyed –including Alberta, British Columbia, Quebec, Victoria (Australia), NewZealand and Great Britain, legislative reforms have been undertaken (or areongoing) that seem likely to require or support interprofessionalcollaboration. Initiatives include:• Legislative changes focused on removing barriers to collaborationbetween health care practitioners and regulators to collaborate withone another (Alberta, British Columbia, Quebec, Victoria (Australia),Oregon and New Zealand);• Movement towards non-restrictive scopes of practice and/or a list ofrestricted activities to facilitate greater interprofessionalcollaboration in health care;• Establishment of specific bodies dedicated to enhancingcollaboration among health professions regulators (Quebec, GreatBritain, Virginia), and• Establishment of common structures, processes or policies for allhealth profession regulators for complaints, investigations,disciplinary processes and procedures (Quebec, Victoria (Australia),New Zealand, Denmark, Nebraska, Virginia and Washington state).Today, both Quebec and Great Britain are at the forefront in developing andputting in place bodies whose roles are, among others, to enhancecollaboration among regulators of health professions. These bodies are alsomandated to review and monitor the accountability of regulatory bodies forregulatory effectiveness.Quebec has a two-agency model: the Office des professions du Quebec (theOPQ) 21 and the Interprofessional Council. The OPQ is responsible formonitoring the regulatory bodies to ensure that they fulfill their public20HPRAC (2008). Consultation Discussion Guide on Issues Related to the Ministerial Referral onInterprofessional Collaboration among Health Colleges and Professionals: 23.21See www.professions-quebec.org/index.php/en/element/visualiser/id/6.HPRAC Critical Links January 2009