Scope of Practice Campaign - Ontario Physiotherapy Association

What needs to happen now.

OPA celebrated the scope of practice changes that were passed in 2009.

We still need the final enabling regulation change under the Healing Arts Radiation Protection Act to be able to order diagnostic imaging.

We also need regulation amendments under the Laboratory and Specimen Collection Centre Licensing Act so that physiotherapists can order lab tests.

Let’s get it done.

Let’s get changes implemented.

Patients deserve faster access to care.

Enable physiotherapy scope of practice!

Write to Premier Doug Ford and Health Minister Jones, encouraging them to complete the necessary regulations so that physiotherapists can order diagnostic imaging and lab tests.

Read the letter below, add your name and email, and click send.

Scope of Practice Campaign Letter

Message(Required)

Dear Minister Jones and Premier Doug Ford,

Re: Physiotherapy Scope of Practice Expansion

Research and experience demonstrate that physiotherapists working to their full scope of practice offers many benefits to both patients and the health care system – one of the most important is faster access to care.

Ontario physiotherapists have been waiting since 2009 for the approval of regulations to support legislation that has already been passed to enable expanded Scope of Practice. This is what needs to be done:

1. Diagnostic Imaging. The requisite amendments to the Healing Arts Radiation Protection Act were passed by the Ontario Legislature in December 2009 and were proclaimed into force and effect on April 1, 2018. What is still needed is the final enabling regulation change under the Healing Arts Radiation Protection Act.

2. Laboratory tests. No statutory amendments are required. What is still needed are regulation amendments under the Laboratory and Specimen Collection Centre Licensing Act. Those regulation amendments were endorsed by the Health Professions Regulatory Advisory Council and their enactment was promised in 2009 as part of the larger package of scope of practice changes for the profession.

A direct consequence of continued delay and inaction is that Ontario’s physiotherapists now work within a scope of practice more limited than their colleagues in other Canadian provinces, including Alberta, Québec, Nova Scotia and PEI. Where Ontario led, we have now fallen behind. Patients are waiting longer to access necessary rehabilitative care and suffer – in part because of an unnecessary administrative requirement to get a diagnostic requisition from a physician or emergency care setting.

Our system resources need to be allocated so that each health profession can practice to the full extent of their training and scope – expanding points of access and providing efficient and effective collaborative care.

The College of Physiotherapists of Ontario currently has in place the regulatory framework to ensure that these additional authorities are exercised only by registrants who are fully competent to perform them safely and effectively.

On behalf of Ontario physiotherapists, we serve the patients of Ontario and want to provide efficient and effective access at the point of care. We must make progress together.

Sincerely,

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Help Physiotherapists Work To Their Full Scope

What needs to happen now.

Let’s get changes implemented.

Scope of Practice Campaign Letter

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