Backgrounder
Improving Patient Care in Ontario |
![News Release Printable Version [PDF]](../../../../../../graphics/media/printpage_icon2.gif)
May 11, 2009
Ontario is introducing legislation that would improve access to health care for Ontarians by allowing care providers to use all of their training to perform their jobs and to work more effectively in teams. The proposed legislation would:
Expand What Health Care Providers Do
Health profession Acts (e.g., Nursing Act) under the Regulated Health Professions Act would be changed to allow providers to perform specific health care actions (controlled acts) or order diagnostic tests :
| Health Care Provider | Proposed New Controlled Acts and Powers |
| Nurse Practitioners |
- Apply specified forms of energy (e.g., diagnostic ultrasound);
- Set or cast a fracture or dislocation of a joint
|
| Pharmacists |
- Prick or lance skin to educate a patient
|
| Physiotherapists |
- Tell patients their diagnosis
- Treat a wound
- Insert an instrument, hand or finger into certain body openings for assessment or rehabilitation of the pelvic musculature
- Order certain forms of energy (e.g., diagnostic ultrasound)
|
| Midwives |
- Tell patients their diagnosis
- Give suppository drugs
- Place a tube in the nose or mouth of a newborn
- Take blood samples from fathers and donors
|
| Dieticians |
- Prick skin to check a patient’s blood readings
|
| Medical Radiation Technologists |
- On the order of a physician be able to :
- perform procedures below the skin (e.g., give a needle)
- suction a tracheotomy
- put contrast media into certain body openings and artificial openings into the body
- put an instrument, hand or finger past certain body openings and artificial openings into the body.
|
Change the Rules about Drugs
Health professions Acts (e.g., Pharmacy Act) under the Regulated Health Professions Act would be changed to give providers the power to administer, prescribe, dispense, compound (mix), sell and use drugs as follows :
| Health Care Provider | Drug Authorities Proposed to be Added |
| Chiropodists and Podiatrists |
Give a patient certain substances by inhalation |
| Dental hygienists |
Prescribe, dispense, sell or mix certain drugs |
| Dentists |
Sell or mix drugs (can already prescribe and dispense) |
| Midwives |
Give a patient any substance on the order of a physician |
| Nurse practitioners |
Dispense, mix, and sell certain drugs (can already prescribe) |
| Pharmacists |
Prescribe certain drugs to manage patient health
Give certain substances through injection and inhalation to demonstrate their use or to educate patients
|
| Physiotherapists |
Give certain substances by inhalation as ordered by authorized persons (e.g., a physician) |
| Respiratory therapists |
Independently give a patient certain substances by inhalation |
Increase Ability to Order X-Rays
Regulations would be changed under the Healing Arts Radiation Protection Act to allow:
- Nurse practitioners to order any X-rays
- Physiotherapists to order X-rays subject to conditions
Members of the media :
|
Steve Erwin, 416-326-3986
Minister's Office
Andrew Morrison , 416-314-6197
Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care
ontario.ca/health-news
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