gwalsh's blog

In my post on the Licensure debate, I incorrectly stated that the discussion would take place at the OSCP meeting on September 20th. The actual date is Saturday, September 13. I appologize for any confucion.

Graham

To All Ontario Perfusionists:
The Ontario Society of Clinical Perfusion will be considering the possibility of seeking regulation of our profession under the Province’s Regulated Health Professions Act at his year’s Annual General Meeting. Meeting details will be posted on the OSCP website as soon as they are confirmed.

Background
In February, contact was made with the Cardiology Technologists (OSCT) to see if they were interested in joining us in a joint application to the Government of Ontario to become a regulated health profession. We were informed by the OSCT that they were already involved in a consortium that had applied to the Health Professions Regulatory Advisory Council (HPRAC). This is the council that advises the Minister on the need for and practicality of regulating health professions. The OSCP was given an opportunity to attend an informational meeting with the consultant for the OSCT on this matter. This meeting was held in April. Peter Allen and I attended on behalf of the OSCP to see if Perfusion might be able to join this group.
The Groups: The consortium consisted of: The OSCT, The Medical Sonographers, The Cathlab Technologists, Sleep Technologists, EEG Technologists, and EMG Technologists. The largest of these groups is the Medical Sonographers. They represent about 1,100 members. The total membership of all groups is about 2,300. The Medical Sonographers may decide to leave this group and become members of the College of Medical Radiation Technology. If that should happen, the remaining groups, in particular the OSCT are prepared to continue without them. Although the total membership of the remaining groups is about 1,100 to 1,200, it is estimated that an equal number of non-member practioners exist. That would bring the membership of the college to over 2,000 people.
The opportunity for this foray into possible regulation came about when the Minister of Health and Long Term Care referred the question of regulating the medical sonographers to HPRAC. The OSCT saw this as an opportunity to get in front of the council, and sought other professions to join them. To date, it is estimated that the process has cost about $40,000, with more expenses to come. We have been asked for $2,000 as a good faith amount to allow us to remain as part of the application. The Board of Directors of the OSCP approved this amount. As a result, we keep our place with this group until the end of September. By that time, we will have met at our annual general meeting, and decided if we want to continue.

Pros and Cons
There are two major questions that we have to answer here. One: do we wish to become a regulated profession? Two: is this the right time and place to do so?
Some reasons for regulation are: protection of the public; protection of our profession by setting the standards for gaining a license; giving us a voice and status with government agencies when questions arise about health regulation; having a college to which delegated acts may be assigned; and controlling our own entry to regulation and not waiting to be forced into it.

Some reasons not to attempt regulation are: we become visible and may get forced into regulation other than with the chosen group; the way we are doing it now is as close to regulation as you can get without actually being regulated; it is costly to gain regulation and to maintain it; it is a lot of time, effort and expense with no guarantees and little personal benefit; and the public is already protected by our current credentialing system.

There may be more significant reasons on both sides of this discussion. I am calling on all Ontario Perfusionists to make sure their views on this are made known. To that end, the Ontario Society of Clinical Perfusion will be holding a panel discussion with Q & A on this topic at its next annual general meeting in Southlake Regional Hospital on Saturday, September 20th, 2008.

All are welcome to attend. Non-members of the OSCP are welcome to register for the Scientific Sessions where the panel discussion and Q & A will take place, but may not be allowed to attend the business meeting and as such will have no voice or vote at that meeting.

Sincerely
Board of Directors
OSCP

May 29, 2008

The Honorable R. Bartolucci
Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services
18th Floor Minister’s Office
25 Grosvenor Street
Toronto, ON
M7A 1Y6
Dear Minister Bartolucci;

The Ontario Society of Clinical Perfusion would like to make draw your attention to an oversight in the Mandatory Blood Testing Act of 2006. This act, while progressive and important in protecting workers in the public sector, and by extension the general public, has created an unfortunate situation. By specific inclusion of professions, there may be an implied exclusion of others.

The only front line health care workers recognized as prescribed classes under the current legislation are the members of the Ontario College of Nurses, paramedics and paramedic students, or those providing emergency assistance to an injured person. Hospital based workers who are not members of the Ontario College of Nurses appear to have been overlooked.

The Ontario Society of Clinical Perfusion represents health care professionals who operate the heart-lung machine used during open heart surgery. In this procedure, blood is diverted from the patient as it enters the heart and is circulated through the heart lung machine where venous blood is converted to arterial blood before it is returned to the patient just beyond the outflow from the heart. At any number of times during this event perfusionists are called upon to draw blood samples and preform point of care blood testing. It may also become necessary to add or remove components from the circuit. In rare events, perfusionists may have to carry out major interventions with the machine, which carries with it the risk of signifficant exposure to the patient’s blood.

While members of the profession employ safe work practices during the course of the job, it is the unexpected or unusual situations that we occassionally encounter that may expose us to direct contact with the patient’s blood. Even the most careful professional will occasionally suffer accidental needle sticks or come in contact directly with the patient’s blood.

The Ontario Society of Clinical Perfusion respectfully requests a meeting with you or your representative to discuss inclusion of the members of the Ontario Society of Clinical Perfusion as a “prescribed class of persons” pursuant to paragraph 11 (1) c. of the Mandatory Blood Testing Act, 2006.

Respectfully Yours

Graham Walsh, CPC, CCP
President, Ontario Society of Clinical Perfusion

To All Members of the OSCP.

The Board of Directors met in early May. We discussed several important topics. The first was about the mandatory Blood Testing Act of 2006. The OSCP is making representation to the Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services about having members of the OSCP included as a prescribed class under that act. The act allows for an individual who comes in contact with blood or body fluids of another individual to require mandatory blood testing to rule out certain infectious diseases. Only members of prescribed classes can invoke this act, and at present we are not one of them.

A copy of the letter will be posted once the minister has received it.

The other very important topic concerns joining a consortium of health workers who are seeking regulation under the provinces regulatory laws. Please check back on this site to see a full discussion of this important topic. There will be a full session at the Ontario Meeting in September. We will be asking the membership to make an important decision about continuing this process.

Graham Walsh
President, OSCP