B.C. proposes sweeping changes to regulation of health workers
Posted November 27, 2019 2:43 pm.
Last Updated November 27, 2019 2:52 pm.
VICTORIA (NEWS 1130) – The provincial government is proposing sweeping new changes to the regulation of health professionals in British Columbia.
The potential changes would help keep patients better informed, Health Minister Adrian Dix says, and protecting the public is a priority.
Key changes are being proposed to how patients or clients make complaints about doctors, dentists and other health care providers. The changes are meant to make the process more transparent if a provider is disciplined.
This streamlining flows out of a review of the dental college after concerned of governance – the review then looked at the bigger picture of all colleges. #bcpoli pic.twitter.com/J83fW3Zmzq
— LizaYuzda (@LizaYuzda) November 27, 2019
If the recommendations are adopted, the 20 health colleges that currently oversee 25 groups of practitioners would be slimmed down to five, and all would be overseen by a single body.
This streamlining flows out of a review of the dental college after concerns about governance. That review then looked at the bigger picture of all colleges.
Dix says the changes will also simplify and increase transparency in the public complaints and professional disciplinary process. He wants to make sure there are publicly accessible records that include information on whether a doctor, nurse or dentist has been disciplined by one of the colleges.
One of the issues for the public and certainly for reporters has been getting information has been challenging at best and impossible at worst from most colleges when it comes to disciplining of members – @adriandix & committee believe changes will improve transparency. #bcpoli pic.twitter.com/uUeaLsNHdS
— LizaYuzda (@LizaYuzda) November 27, 2019
“If there’s a contrary decision in some way, then the public should be able to know about that, they should be able to get that information on a website about a health practitioner. I think that’s understood and that is not always the case today,” he says.
“I think the principal here – if there is a finding, if there is a conclusion, that the public should know about that finding and should know about that conclusion. That’s the change we recommend.”
The new recommendations were put together with input from all three parties in the B.C. legislature. The province is also looking for feedback on the proposed changes, which you can provide here.
Health min @adriandix with @SoniaFurstenau and @NormLetnick announcing a shakeup of how health care providers are regulated – instead of 20 colleges for 25 groups plan is to have five #bcpoli pic.twitter.com/Iohs69LW9z
— LizaYuzda (@LizaYuzda) November 27, 2019
With files from the Canadian Press
