from the registrar’s desk
Know your Reporting Obligations
... Continued from pg. 7
or other regulatory bodies.
If you have reasonable grounds, obtained in the
course of practising the profession, to believe that
another physician or regulated health professional has
sexually abused a patient, then you must file a written
report with the registrar of the College to which the
member belongs.
If the information about the sexual abuse is obtained
directly from the patient, you must make a strong effort to advise the patient of the requirement to file the
report before doing so.
And what about a physician who has his hospital
privileges cancelled due to bad behaviour? Again, it
triggers a mandatory report.
The Public Hospitals Act states that physicians or
others acting as hospital administrators have specific
reporting obligations in relation to disciplinary actions
taken against physicians.
The obligation to report is triggered when a physician’s application for privileges is rejected, or privileges are restricted, or cancelled due to the physician’s
incompetence, negligence, or misconduct. Reports are
also required when a physician resigns (voluntarily or
involuntarily) during the course of an investigation
concerning the physician’s competence, negligence or
conduct. In such circumstances, it is incumbent on
the administrator of the hospital to forward a detailed
report to us.
What I’ve mentioned here is far from an exhaustive
list of mandatory reports, and I urge you to become familiar with our Mandatory and Permissive Reporting
Policy which provides much more specific guidance.
I won’t pretend that your decision to report won’t
cause you significant anxiety. I know that it will be
hard. But you can take comfort that you have acted
professionally, ethically and in the public interest.
End-of-Life Care
... Continued from pg. 6
Code. The Supreme Court of Canada’s decision in Carter
v Canada was released two weeks before the close of the
consultation, and it drew significant attention to this section of the draft policy. In fact, many of the respondents
in our consultation suggested that the draft policy be
withdrawn or put on hold until the Carter decision came
into effect in February 2016 and a legislative framework
was in place.
We talk in greater depth about the Carter v Canada
decision in this magazine so I won’t provide details here,
but the result is that the Supreme Court of Canada has
directed government and other stakeholders to develop
legislation, policy and/or guidelines as to how physicianassisted death should be provided. The College is actively
monitoring the situation and working with key partners
so that we are prepared for when the Carter v. Canada
decision comes into effect. The College’s position on this
issue will be developed as we learn more about whether
8
Dialogue Issue 3, 2015
and how government will respond to the decision.
In order to support