In bringing the public, patients and physicians
together to pool knowledge, experience and
expertise, we are able to create the best
solutions.
In late 2018 and early 2019, engaging with our
stakeholders was of particular importance as we
sought feedback as to what we were doing right and
how we could improve.
In order to set the best direction for the College
for the next five years, we embarked on in a robust
engagement process - we held hundreds of in-person
sessions and surveyed 6000 stakeholders, including
physicians, members of the public and health-care
organizations. The inclusion of broad stakeholder
perspectives was critical to ensuring the College’s
strategic plan was focused on the right priorities, as
well as reflecting an understanding of the change in
the current environment.
Confident that we had developed a blueprint
informed by a variety of perspectives, Council
approved our Strategic Plan in May 2019. And
heartened and encouraged by the insights gleaned
from our fact finding mission, we incorporated
meaningful engagement as a strategic priority to
inform our continuing evolution.
Our Conversations
As Ontario’s medical regulator, our role is to serve
in the public interest within the province’s healthcare
system. To properly fulfill this role, we need
engagement from the public, from patients, from
caregivers, from those who have had a good
experience in their health-care interaction, and
those who found areas for improvement. We need
to hear from medical students, from doctors new
to the practice of medicine and those who have
been in practice for many years, Listening to all
perspectives is absolutely critical to our work — from
setting standards and writing policies that shape the
conduct and competency standards of physicians, to
determining the initiatives that most resonate.
We believe that we needed to create opportunities
for more conversations and indeed better
conversations with the public that we serve and
the physicians that we guide. We recognized
that much can be gained by tapping into these
insights, including identifying blind spots in medical
regulation, and the health-care system, in general. So
in 2019, we found new channels for engagement.
Listening
As our conversations with patients deepen, we
have come to understand that, for the most part,
when patients complain about a medical encounter,
they are not doing it to seek revenge or even to air
a grievance. More often, they are hoping that in
sharing their experience, it will lead to a change so
that other patients can avoid similar distress.
Our adoption of alternative dispute resolution (which
we discuss in our right-touch regulation section)
recognizes that what often comes to us in the form
of a complaint can be used as an opportunity to
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