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Discuss for Bill 50 |
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Discuss for Bill 50
The Letter from Lawyer Roger Horst
Nov.16,2006
By FACSIMILE
Dear Committee members:
Re : The Canadian Society of Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture
Bill 50
Our File No: 097995.0001
Further to my correspondence to you of Nov.15, 2006, I am pleased to provide you with a detailed update regarding the conversations my firm is having with the government on your behalf.
The government is well aware of the Society and your long time role on it. Due to the press of events leading up to Social Committee meeting on Monday, this is the first opportunity for the government to provide a detailed response to your memorandum of Nov.9, 2006 which was sent to Minister Smitherman.
Jack and I have used your memorandum as a guide in our discussions with the government and for ease of reference I attach as translated by Dr.Yu Hua Wang. The government's detailed response is set out below.
For the government, the original policy reason for proceeding to regulate in this field was the concerns expressed by other colleges of health professions about practitioners whose sanitary standard were inappropriate, and an expressed need to have some regulation of the acts, in particular, of acupuncture. As a result, once the legislation is fully implemented, it is absolutely essential that only members of regulated health professions perform acupuncture.
The government understands the concerns raised, specifically by TCM schools, who want a monopoly over Ontario's acupuncture standards. The very firm position of the Ministry had been that no such monopoly would be possible. However, a compromise was struck this week through the committee process. Rather than permit any regulated health profession to perform acupuncture, these instead will be only 8 enumerated professions permitted to engage in such practices under any condition, plus the physicians, who would automatically be included in any event. For any of 8 enumerated professions to be permitted to be engaged in acupuncture, however, the relevant College will in fact be required to develop a standard for the members of the college who perform acupuncture, and the College must enforce conformity with those standards. A similar rule will apply to the new College established under this legislation as well.
Further, the Minister on Tuesday informed the Standing Committee that it would be appropriate to have all of the affected colleges develop their standards for acupuncture in a collaborative fashion. The minister indicated his intention to seek advice from the Health Professions Regulatory Advisory Council with respect to the best way for such a collaboration to be facilitated. Attached to this letter is a copy of the text of the Minister's letter to the Committee Chair.
We have been further advised that a fundamental change with respect to acupuncture is reflected in the amendments that were adopted in Committee on Tuesday, making acupuncture once only 13 or 14 defined "controlled acts" within the health professions. This reflects the importance the government places upon this treatment modality, and attaches to it a certain added level of prestige.
Turning then to the various recommendations that appear on your memorandum, we can advise that, some, but nor all of these matters are addressed in the amendments. I will follow the numbering from your memorandum.
1.The College will be renamed to be the College of Traditional Chinese Medicine Practitioners and Acupuncturists of Ontario.
2.The term "assessment" will not exactly be replaced with "diagnosis",but, instead, within the scope of the controlled act under the legislation will be " communicating a TCM Diagnosis."
3. Responsibility for Grandfathering and the development of the standards will be vested in the transitional Council. Further, it is anticipated that there will be a delay in proclamation of the legislation of at least two years, in order for the necessary processes and approvals to take place. It appears that the intention is to have the Transitional Council establishes the standards, and allows an opportunity for them to be met, so that people effectively have licenses prior to legislation fully coming into effect.
4.With respect to scope of practice, the various subcategories listed in the memorandum, including herbal formulae, acupuncture, tuina, cupping and moxibustion, will not be incorporated into the legislation. Rather, all of these things are regulated and it will be possible for the college to define specialties within the scope of its mandate.
5. Similarly, with respect to the additional titles suggested, it will be up to the College to determine the specialties within the scope of its broad mandate. This would be no different than the manner in which such questions are handled by other professions. For example, the only defined category under the legislation with respect to the practice of dentistry is the title,"dentist". It is the College itself through its regulatory powers that establishes the specialization of " orthodontist" or " periodontist", and the College would be fully empowered to follow a similar course.
6. There will be no change with respect to the right to prescribe TCM herbal formulae. These formulae are natural health products presently available over the counter, and the regulation of such substances is entirely within the authority of the federal government which has determined that they are available to the general public in this fashion. The provincial legislature might be able to control who can prescribe a pharmaceutical product that has been federally regulated as " Prescription only," but the province lacks the authority to require prescriptions for other products.
7. With respect to the issue of standards and the division of acupuncture into TCM acupuncture and adjunct practice, this proposal was not acceptable to the government, however, as described above, a process has been set in place to limit which health professions can engage in acupuncture and to establish a negotiation between the colleges of appropriate professional standards of care.
8. The issue of language of examination will be entirely within the authority of the Transitional Council. There is no need to incorporate it into the legislation, but it will be necessary for approciate advocacy to occur in order to ensure that the College extends this consideration to practitioners whose first language is not English.
As noted, the government believes that as the amendments discussed above were unanimously adopted within committee that the Bill will now pass, likely before the end of year break.
The government anticipates a lengthily transitional period of up to two years.
We have now established a solid line of communication with the government on your behalf. The government is quite willing to work with you and the Society going forward.
I would be happy to discuss these matters with you further.
I am looking forward to hearing from you.
Yours very truly,
Blaney Mcmurtry
Roger Horst
Editorial comment: A comment from the editor: After the second reading of Bill 50, our executive committe had decided to hire a lawyer Mr.Roger J. Horst on Nov.5,2006 since we wished to add 8 suggestions to Bill 50. On Nov.16, 2006, Mr.Horst send a letter to CSCMA members ,which is the letter from the Mr.Geoge Smitherma as above, which had explained that the government had accepted two suggestions and other 6 will be discussed by the future college of TCM. We strongly believe that the government has good attitute to respect our TCM professional,which is the sixth medical professional in Ontario.On Feb.4,2007, Mr.Smitherman, MrMike Colle and Mr Horst atteneded our celebrating party, which gave them a good impression. On March 1,2007, Mr. Horst had talked to the person who is a director of Mr.Smitherman's office.
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