reports from council
Transparency Initiative: Council
approves Phase 1 by-laws
Phase 2 by-laws now out for extended consultation
A
photo: D.W. Dorken
This is a brief
overview of the
discussions and
decisions made
at the December
Council meeting.
t its recent meeting,
Council continued to
advance the Transparency
Initiative by approving
Phase 1 by-laws recently circulated
for an external consultation. The
by-laws will enable the College to
post on the public register physicians’
criminal findings, Health Insurance
Act offences and those bail conditions
that affect their practice.
Council also approved several
proposed by-laws for an extended
consultation in Phase 2 of our
initiative. If approved by Council in
May, these by-laws would see posted
on our public register: a) information resulting from the investigations process and b) information
which may be obtained elsewhere,
but is not always easy to access. The
former category of information is
not currently public.
Recommendations about which
Inquiries, Complaints and Reports
Committee (ICRC) outcomes should
be made public were grounded in
Transparency Principles, including
one that states that the greater the
potential risk to the public, the more
important transparency becomes. As
such, those outcomes reflective of
moderate risk – a Specified Continuing Education or Remediation Program (SCERP) order, and a cautionin-person – are being put forward as
information that should be known to
the public.
The proposed by-laws, if approved,
would also see criminal charges,
licences in other jurisdictions, and
discipline findings in other jurisdictions posted on the public register.
Given the fundamental change
posed by these by-laws, Council decided that the consultation
deadline should be extended beyond
the required 60 days to allow people
the opportunity to give considered,
thoughtful feedback.
Please see page 31 for more
information.
Issue 4, 2014 Dialogue
21