The recent enactment of the Health Professions and Occupations Act (HPOA), passed on November 24, 2022, poses a significant risk to patient safety, access and choice in healthcare services.

“This Act creates the kind of sweeping authority over the doctor-patient relationship that no physician should have, let alone a politician.” Benjamin Turner MD, MA, FRCSC

Key Changes Brought in by the HPOA:

• Government Control Over Practice Standards: The HPOA allows politicians to set practice standards, rather than health professionals, undermining expert-driven care.

• Informed Consent Under Threat: The HPOA severely limits the practitioner’s ability to provide an honest opinion to the patient without penalty. This is not only a practitioner’s right, but first of all a sacred duty, and the foundation of every therapeutic relationship.

• Privacy Violated: The government now has the authority to enter clinics without a court order, view and copy patient records, and lock out the practitioner, even over anonymous complaints.

• Loss of Provincial Autonomy: The HPOA allows the provincial government to adopt, wholesale, the recommendations of off-shore bodies such as the World Health Organization, without assessing or adapting them for the Canadian context.

• Severe Penalties for Vague Infractions: Healthcare professionals face fines of up to $200,000 and 2 years in prison for ill-defined offences against the Act, including even the sharing of information; the type of information is left to be defined later.

• Deterrent to Healthcare Recruiting in B.C.: The B.C. Dental Association specifically cites this legislation as a likely deterrent for any professionals thinking of practising in the province, given the unpredictable risk of catastrophic professional harm.

A Call to Action

Health professionals, candidates for public office and the public remain unaware of these sweeping changes. We urge the media at all levels to spread this information to educate and inform the public and candidates to ultimately repeal the HPOA.

Resources:

– Text of the Act: Bill 36 – 2022: Health Professions and Occupations Act (gov.bc.ca)

– BC Dentists Response Statement on HPOA

– Doctors of BC Response Statements on HPOA

Contact:

Spokesperson: Benjamin Turner MD, MA, FRCSC

Organization: Canadian Society for Science and Ethics in Medicine (https://www.cssem.org/hpoa)

Best Contact: (431)336-6984 (Phone or text acceptable)