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Shout, Shout – Let it All Out!!!

Dec 11, 2015

You Talk. We Listen. 

By now you know we’ve been working hard to consult about the potential for clinic regulation in Ontario. The one and only thing about the consultations that has disappointed me is the suspicion I’ve encountered about the consultation process itself.

It appears that many people seem to think that our working group has already made a final decision.

That is not true.

We actually do listen to you and the more thoughtful and well-researched the information you provide, the more useful it is in shaping the final product.

The clinic regulation consultation has been and is intense – there’s an opportunity for input through a dedicated website, ontarioclinicregulation.com by email, phone calls, commenting through the blog, in-person at town halls or in writing. You are welcome to reach out to me or any of the other 12 Colleges involved in the project.

What I am about to say applies equally to the smaller consultations we hold, like when we ask your opinion about a Standard or when we invite you to take part in a website survey.

The response you provide helps to create whatever we are working on. When we get responses that tell us that something won’t work (our definition of clinic is too broad or we shouldn’t include sole practitioners for example), we are likely to change it so it makes better sense. The more specific you are in your feedback, the more helpful it is to us in identifying the weaknesses.

Sometimes your feedback might tell us the item we are consulting about is confusing or ambiguous— if this happens, we head back to the drawing board and try to make it clearer.

If the response to a consultation was overwhelmingly negative, with lots of information about how we had made a mistake, this would drive us to do further research.

Public consultations are not popularity contests.

Frankly, it’s easier to scare up negative feedback than thoughtful input, so sometimes a high number of negative responses does not persuade Council not to move forward with a decision.

It is the quality of your input that matters the most.

Consultations are not just with the profession. We ask other regulators how they approach things. Sometimes we ask special interest groups for their input —like employers or physiotherapist assistants.  And, whenever we can, we try to get the opinions of patients and their caregivers too. Help us by telling your friends, family and even your patients to check out our website and get involved.

I promise you that what you tell us does impact the decisions made.

And that’s how the profession really makes rules for the profession.

It’s a little wee thing, but maybe you could add it to your list of New Years’ Resolutions? “In 2016, I will participate in self-regulation!”

Leave a comment
  1. anon | Jan 26, 2016

    This is a conflict of interest with the colleges that are directly involved in setting up this organization.
    If the clinic owner is investigated by the college then the member will pay for both their own lawyers as well as college legal fees. The college is creating revenue by double dipping with this organization.
    Where is the College of Physicians of Ontario? Where is the Royal College of Dental Surgeons? Why are these two powerhouse colleges not a part of this organization?

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  2. gracejoubarne461654805 | Jan 07, 2016

    Physios who try to stop competition by eliminating people from the marketplace get what they deserve–and it will be terrible in the end because tyranny knows no bounds. Once you folks are push drugs, who will actually do drug-less physio exactly?

    IF THE CLIENT prefers someone who is not a member of a College, that client should have the right to have that practitioner, without interference of those who think they know what’s right for anyone. It is clear that any unregulated practitioner who does not provide top notch work, will be eliminated by the PUBLIC through natural selection.

    Many members of the Colleges are useless at best, but guess what…people are tricked into using them because they are ‘regulated’ and supposed to be better than unregulated which the public is increasing preferring.

    Just look at the damage medical doctors are doing…and they are ‘regulated’. Medical treatment is now the leading cause of death and disability in North America, with no end in sight. Who is getting protected here?

    As the same harmful people eliminate ethical safe practitioners who have never harmed, let alone kill anyone, one is forced to go to those who they know may well harm them, either through non-disclosure of all information and/or because there is no one else to go to.

    How will an investigation into your moral character and your financial records in any way help a client??? Such nonsense…would be laughable if it was not so dangerous. This is why Ontario has fallen into a totalitarian state…a handlful of people interfering with the marketplace and deciding for the PUBLIC what is best for the PUBLIC.

    People forget the history lessons of how the Nazis took power and eliminated many millions of people…we are seeing the same modus operandi in Ontario right now.

    If you are scared of competition, then your work is not up to the PUBLIC’s standard.

    I have heard of no incident of anyone killed by an unregulated physiotherapist…have you? And even if there was one, it would be handled properly under the criminal code, not by some self-licking ice-cream cone called a College.

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  3. Anonymous | Jan 07, 2016

    You said it. I am anonymous bcs I am scared of my employer. Exactly the same reason college wants to regulate clinics bcs greedy owners parasitizing physio’s and putting all responsibility to their heads. $35 per hour tats what average physio makes for last 10 years or more… Why you guys are crying out for cost of clinic regulation? Are you going to bankrupt for paying extra $600- $700 per year for inspection from college???. Honestly can you tell your friends or family members just go to neighboring physiotherapy clinic if they ever refereed for physio?. There are clinics in each and every corners of GTA ,god only knows what kind of physiotherapy they are providing to patients. Onsite assessments happens once every 5 years .It cant eliminate fraud or unethical practice. We have to standardize clinics through regulations. Its inevitable.. .That why government regulated long term care homes, Retirement homes,pharmacies, dental clinics .to make sure owners will follow ethical parctice otherwise they loose licence. Imagine if there is no inspection from MOH in LTC home bcs people are working there all regulated?.. You want pay $ 35/per hour to a physio and make him responsible for your clinic.

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  4. Anonymous | Jan 06, 2016

    It is just not fair to create more liability for any regulated practitioner, we are as is liable for the things we do like patient care and things we do not do like billing and advertising. To make us liable for the functioning of the whole clinic is overwhelming. If you can come up with something that does not increase a PT’s liability that would be great. It seems like we PTs are always held up against the wall.

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  5. gracejoubarne461654805 | Jan 05, 2016

    Of course you would be anonymous…how much were you paid to write this comment? Shenda was an executive and strategist with the College of Physicians and Surgeons most of her working life…suddenly she took a job as Registrar with a small College…what do you think is behind this? She is not a physiotherapist, never been a practitioner. And she is the ringleader of a group seeking to undermine the democratic rights of an entire population. If you want warrantless searches into your financial and patient records and an assessment of your moral character by people like her, then fair enough, but know that most of us like our personal freedoms just fine…and we are happy to work in a marketplace system where the best rise to the top because the public likes their work, and not because the competition has been eliminated by self-serving ‘opinion’. There is NO evidence that any unregulated practitioner has caused any harm. You need to check the Fraser Institute studies before you parrot what Shenda tells you. They are trying to drive a wedge between regulated and unregulated practitioners…let the public decide. It is not because you are a member of a College that makes you competent…it is because you have learned and experienced. Same with unregulated practitioners…if the public likes us, that is all that is needed. If you need to be a member of a College in order to get clients, then it is you who has the problem. The public should not be subjected to poor quality practitioners who would not make it on their own in an open marketplace.

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  6. Anonymous | Jan 05, 2016

    Shenda stands for physiotherapist not for clinic owners.No wonder some people are upset about clinic regulations. I know majority of physiotherapist support our registar for her great work. We are sick and tried of unethical physiotherapy business practice spreading like a cancer in our community.

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  7. gracejoubarne461654805 | Dec 29, 2015

    Shenda Tanchak is the ringleader in this proposed Clinic legislation that is already written. It is not a discussion, if it is already written.

    She is using the age old technique…first make it appear it is inevitable and then ask for input to make the inevitable appear to be the result of a consensus.

    In Ottawa, having braved freezing rain to get to one of her ‘consultations’, 70 people told her clearly that no such regulation was needed or lawful. As you can see from her blogs, she didn’t hear a word they were saying…too busy listening to the instructions from the CPSO telling her to keep forcing this on the healthcare industry because it will be the greatest tool ever devised to eliminate all drug company competition. “Stick to the narrative we’ve written Shenda…keep repeating that you are protecting the public, keep suggesting this is a College endeavor, keep obfuscating and do not discuss the facts, the Constitutional rights or anything else that matters.”

    Tanchak spent almost her entire career at the higher levels of the College of Physicans and Surgeons…suddenly she is the Registrar of a handful (in comparison to the CPSO) of physiotherapists. She herself has never been a practitioner and never trained in anything she seems to have a hand in regulating. But let us never forget that the CPSO is the biggest proponent of the medical/pharmacetuical monopoly of all healthcare.

    Physiotherapy is completely safe and if anyone is ever hurt by a physiotherapist, they have to answer to the Criminal Code, just as every other person does, thus this forced regulation of physiotherapists through involuntary membership, under the guise of ‘protecting the public’ violates the RHPA, the Competitions Act and the Constitution of Canada because it is founded on Big Pharma/CPSO agenda and not on the mandatory proof of serious risk to the public.

    Tanchak has convinced College Councils to appropriate money from College funds to advance the agenda of the medical/pharma cartel. It was admitted that this action on the part of these working group individuals is not within the mandate of the Colleges they claim to represent. They have unlawfully stepped outside the boundary and mandates of their Colleges and wrapped themselves in the trappings of legitimacy by referring to their titles as Registrars, which is an improper use of their titles and positions.

    If this is not an endeavor of the Colleges themselves and is beyond their mandates, then they should not be referencing in any way the Colleges and should not be sitting on the very boards of these Colleges that have allotted monies to be spent outside their mandates. These people are acting as individuals, but hiding that fact by constantly referencing their connections with the Colleges.

    This is a conflict of interest first and foremost, deception at its best and all College members should be rising up and demanding that the 1/4 million dollars ponied up by these Colleges at the behest of these individuals be returned to the Colleges. IT IS YOUR OWN FEES THAT ARE PAYING FOR THESE INDIVIDUALS TO CAUSE YOU, PRACTITIONERS OF ALL SORTS, AND ALL ONTARIANS GREAT HARM.

    Likewise, the Ontario Clinic Regulation has as its specific and well noted agenda, the complete elimination of all holistic, energy, spiritual care and traditional practitioners. Tanchak and her ilk have worked hard to make everyone believe that an unregulated professional is a menace to society, when two major studies have shown that unregulated professionals are the safest …not a single complaint from the public. But nonetheless, regulated professionals have been co-opted to turn against unregulated professionals, not realizing that while they are acting with impunity to violate the rights of thousands of safe, effective practitioners, their own personal liberties have been essentially eroded away… they are willing slaves.

    Now, this Ontario Clinic Regulation will ensure that regulated professions are further squeezed until anyone that the medical profession wants removed can be removed through warrant-less searches of financial information, patient records and homes and offices. Just look at what they did to the highly successful Dr. Philip Tran (TCM professional) because he would not go along with the College of TCM nonsense.

    And that is if first you are not forced out of business through the sheer economic reality that keeping more pigs at the trough will cost beyond what you make and your customers will simply not be able to afford you.

    You College lovers really need to wake up. the RHPA was installed to ensure that all but the 3 very most dangerous professions remain self-regulated associations with voluntary memberships. You are not going to be protected by the medical profession unless you are willing to push drugs for everything…aka, unless you agree to sell your souls.

    You are not protecting the public, you are ensuring that your services end up being beyond the reach of the public. You are safe. How many people have died at the hands of a physiotherapist? Those who harm can be dealt with in the proper forums. You don’t need this gang of takeover artists to rob you blind in exchange for the privilege of being enslaved.

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  8. Anonymous | Dec 14, 2015

    The best way to control is to stop unprofessionals to open and run a clinic.
    Regulating clinics is a waste of time money and resources.
    When solution can be so simple why catch the nose from the other way round.
    Because of merky unlicensed business people, ethical professional do not dare to open a clinic. I have seen so many physios wanting to open their own practice but do not want to because in GTA every plaza has a clinic and they know they will not survive as we as a Physio can not do unethical practice as the others do.

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  9. Anonymous | Dec 14, 2015

    If the physicians who force the patients to go to a particular clinic are not corrected…nothing is going to change. As they might get a fat commission
    I have had patients complaining that their family doctor is telling the to go somewhere else for Physio. And because they don’t want to upset the family doctor they follow him religiously.

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  10. Mike Poling | Dec 14, 2015

    Clinic regulation is pointless. All of the existing regulated professionals have standards that need to be met. Some colleges choose not to reprimand their members, acting more like professional associations than colleges. Ours holds members to a high standard and is on the leading edge of self regulation. But to impose FURTHER fees, insurances, oversight on members who are already inundated with standards is not needed. Have reported a member of another college twice for performing controlled acts on patients with absolute contraindications, one of whom had a head injury and entered this person’s clinic by accident (he practices next door to me). The other had their spleen ruptured during the controlled act.
    That college was contacts numerous times and official reports placed. The college reported to us that they were unwilling to discipline the member because lawsuits from both patient families were ongoing and that the member was being punished enough. To date, he continues his practice, both lawsuits ongoing and nowhere near complete, despite more than a year going by.
    If you want to spend time and attention, spend it ensuring that the Regulated Health Act is followed by the colleges, because many are not fulfilling their duty to protect the public.

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  11. Marc Dignard | Dec 11, 2015

    I have been a clinic owner for the past 25 years. While I might understand some of the reasons the College is proposing for clinic regulation, I think there is a more important problem at hand which should take precedence in being addressed, that is conflict of interest and kickbacks in the industry. I see it , colleagues I talk to see it , it exists , period. Why is it important ? simple, never mind the issue of quality of care, professionalism etc… yes they are extremely important, but it doesn’t really matter if the referral never arrives in the first place because it has been directed by a kickback or an inducement; it won’t even matter wether or not your service is up to par, you won’t even get a chance to deliver it. If the intent is to protect the public, let market forces decide who wins and loses; markets are efficient and they will deliver in the long run, this is a generally accepted notion. But then again, if conditions such as kickbacks exist, markets are being subverted and this is where you need to act, so markets can decide for themselves. Here is an actual case in point , we hear by coincidence that a doctor who has been referring to us for the past 20 years suddenly tells the patient,” I will take care of everything”, and you will receive a call by the clinic. So the patient to her surprise gets the call from clinic X when in actuality she expected to be referred to her usual place. This is only one of the examples out there, there are many others I and my colleagues could talk about. Here is another efficient way to monitor clinics; introduce protection for whistleblowers, many have done it and recently the SEC also introduced it in Ontario. This will send the right message to shady owners ; yours employees will hold you accountable; simple and cost-effective.
    The overwhelming majority of clinic owners out there are true professionals and understand that markets hold them accountable, so they have no choice but to strive in all areas of service delivery, their livelihood depends on it; Of course, let’s not kid ourselves, there are always some bad apples. If the College truly wants to make an impact, ensure markets work as they should and that they have the authority to monitor and enforce this; that’s the best way to protect the public.
    Marc Dignard
    Ottawa

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  12. Philip Naiman | Dec 11, 2015

    Sorry. If we are already paying FISCO to regulate clinics, why is another regulatory board necessary?

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  13. Philip Naiman | Dec 11, 2015

    If we are already FISCO to regulate clinics, why is another regulatory board necessary?

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