Bill 29 2014

An Act to amend the Medicine Act, 1991

Her Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Ontario, enacts as follows:

   1.  The Medicine Act, 1991 is amended by adding the following section:

Register

   8.  (1)  The register maintained by the Registrar shall contain the following information about each member, in addition to the information that is required under the Health Professions Procedural Code:

    1.  A notation of every complaint filed with the Registrar regarding the conduct or actions of the member.

    2.  A notation of every caution of a member by a panel of the Inquiries, Complaints and Reports Committee.

    3.  With respect to every civil action or proceeding alleging the member's professional negligence or malpractice, the prescribed information.

    4.  A notation of every death of a patient who was under the member's care, as determined in accordance with the regulations.

    5.  If a member practised medicine in another jurisdiction, all available information from the other jurisdiction that is comparable, as determined in accordance with the regulations, to the information described in paragraphs 1 to 4.

Same

   (2)  The Registrar shall make best efforts to obtain the information described in paragraphs 1 to 5 of subsection (1).

Publication ban

   (3)  No action shall be taken under this section which violates a publication ban, and nothing in this section requires or authorizes the violation of a publication ban.

   2.  Section 12 of the Act is amended by adding the following clause:

  (d)  for the purposes of paragraphs 1 to 5 of subsection 8 (1), prescribing anything referred to as prescribed and governing any matter referred to as being determined in accordance with the regulations.

Commencement

   3.  This Act comes into force on a day to be named by proclamation of the Lieutenant Governor.

Short title

   4.  The short title of this Act is the Medicine Amendment Act, 2014.

EXPLANATORY NOTE

Currently, the Health Professions Procedural Code requires the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario to maintain a public register of its members containing certain information. The Bill amends the Medicine Act, 1991, to provide that the register must also include information about complaints, cautions and civil actions or proceedings against a member, as well as information about deaths occurring in patients under the member's care. The register would also include comparable information from other jurisdictions in which a member practised.