Protecting and eMpowering
Ensuring Patients Are Not Prevented From Accessing Care
In 2015, the College Council approved a policy that
safeguards patients’ rights to access health care.
The Professional Obligations and Human
Rights policy sets out physicians’ existing legal
obligations under the Ontario Human Rights Code,
and the College’s expectation that physicians will
respect the fundamental rights of those who seek their
medical services. The policy also sets out the College’s
expectations for physicians who limit the health services
they provide due to their personal values and beliefs.
A key feature of the policy is that it requires
physicians to provide their patients with an effective
referral to another health-care provider for those services
the physician chooses not to provide for reasons of
conscience or religion.
The policy protects patient rights by ensuring that
patients are not prevented from accessing care that
is clinicall