Transforming and Supporting Patient Care - Health Professions ...

393Chapter 17 – ConclusionsCONCLUSIONSCRITICAL LINKS: TRANSFORMING ANDSUPPORTING PATIENT CAREThis document presents HPRAC’s third report to the Minister oninterprofessional collaboration between health colleges and their members, aswell as its full report on non-physician prescribing and use of drugs. Thefindings and recommendations in these reports are intertwined, calling for farreachingmeasures to modernize the regulatory framework and restructure thehealth regulatory system. Together, these reports call for the creation ofcritical links, among health colleges at the regulatory level and among theirmembers at the clinical level, to transform and support patient care.The proposed reforms will drive continuous improvement in the way healthprofessions are regulated, so Ontarians derive the maximum benefit fromhealth human resources. As a result, health professionals will be able towork to the utmost of their knowledge and skill, to collaborate more closelyto deliver the best outcomes and to adapt more readily to new medicaltechnologies and rising patient expectations.In its report on interprofessional collaboration, HPRAC is making twooverriding recommendations:• Establish a new enabling regulatory framework to enhanceinterprofessional collaboration and strengthen the self-regulation ofhealth professions in Ontario. This new way of doing business willgive health colleges authority to establish legally enforceablestandards of practice, based on interprofessional collaboration wherecontrolled acts are shared, and at the same time provide collegeswith the flexibility to adjust these standards in response to changingpractices and practice environments.• Establish a new agency – the Council on Health ProfessionsRegulatory Excellence – to facilitate interprofessional collaboration,promote regulatory rigour and excellence and increase accountabilitywithin the health profession regulatory system. These aims will beadvanced by identifying best practices and by setting newrequirements for Colleges to measure and report on their activitiesand to improve their communication with the public.These directions represent fundamental reforms designed to bring theregulatory system into step with the evolution of the practice environmentand to facilitate sustained quality improvement in the regulation of healthprofessions. They also provide the foundation for HPRAC’s approach to a newframework and process for drug regulations under health profession Acts.An Enabling Regulatory FrameworkStandards of practice are critical elements in what health colleges do toregulate their members. The standards of practice under the enablingframework proposed by HPRAC would cover: education; training;HPRAC Critical Links January 2009