ENGAGING
Dr. Joel Kirsh,
College President
Working with Government
ing the sexual abuse and transparency provisions
in the RHPA, and improving the complaints, in-
vestigation and discipline processes. The College
shares the government’s commitment to these
objectives.
We did, however, put forward a number of
proposed amendments in two comprehensive
submissions.
In our submission on Bill 84, we stated that
the Bill demonstrates respect for patient au-
tonomy and access to care, two goals which have
underpinned the College’s work on MAiD, and
indeed underpin all of the College’s activities as a
regulatory authority.
Fast Fact
A total of
36
55,803 calls were placed to our Public and Physician Advisory Services.
COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF ONTARIO
A number of pieces of legislation were intro-
duced, both provincially and federally, of rel-
evance to the College in 2016.
Bill 119, Health Information Protection
Act, 2016 requires Colleges to collect personal
information from members that is necessary for
the purposes of developing or maintaining the
electronic health record (EHR), and ensuring
that members are accurately identified for pur-
poses of the EHR.
In March 2016, the College made a submis-
sion to the Standing Committee on Justice Policy
about Bill 119 and asked for clarity on a number
of elements of the Bill including how informa-
tion is collected, new reporting responsibilities
and consistency of language regarding mandatory
reporting of privacy breaches.
In May 2016, the College’s President Dr. Joel
Kirsh made a submission to both the Senate and
House of Commons’ Standing Committees ex-
amining Bill C-14, an Act to amend the Crimi-
nal Code and to make related amendments to
other Acts.
At the end of the last legislative session of
2016, two Bills were introduced that we had
been anticipating: Bill 87, the Protecting Pa-
tients Act, 2016 and Bill 84, Medical Assistance
in Dying Statute Law Amendment Act, 2016.
In our submission for Bill 87, we noted and
expressed support for its objectives: strengthen-