College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario
[1] The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO) is the self-regulating body for the province's medical profession.
However, this change is cosmetic only as the composition of the CPSO Council / Board of Governors is determined by the Medicine Act 1991.
On April 30, 2021, the CPSO released a statement on “Public Health Misinformation” accusing Ontario doctors of “using social media to spread blatant misinformation and undermine public health measures.”[10] In response, a group of Canadian physicians released a declaration titled the “Declaration of Canadian Physicians for Science and Truth”.
They described the CPSO's statement as “unethical, anti-science and deeply disturbing.”[11] As of August 25, 2022, there were 718 signatory physicians and 20,171 on behalf of concerned citizens.
[14] Cautions are issued to doctors for transgressions that include providing inadequate treatment, poor record-keeping and raising voices in arguments.
The goal of the Transparency Project would be to make it easier for patients to gain more information about doctors who have been accused of wrongdoing.
Two, a proposal that the Notices of Hearing for the college's Discipline Proceedings be posted to a physician's profile on the public register.
Third, a proposal that the status of discipline matters as they are proceeding be added to a physician's profile on the public register.
These proposals were contained in amendments to the Regulated Health Professions Act 1991 which were passed by the Ontario Legislative Assembly in 2007 and came into force in 2009.
A novel solution adopted by the college to the problem of delays in resolving complaints has been to make increasing use of "never reapply" undertakings.
These undertakings are probably legally unenforceable both inside and outside Ontario as they would amount to an unreasonable restraint of trade[17] and they are rarely used by other medical regulatory authorities.
In the past, such undertakings were only used in the most serious cases, for example sexual abuse of a patient, but they are increasingly being used by the college as a way of disposing of less serious or unspecified complaints.
"Inexplicable" forms the largest category and indicates either that the reason given was vague ("incompetence", "professional misconduct", "failure to uphold the standards of the profession" or similar) or that it appeared to be an inappropriately harsh penalty (overprescribing of opioids, for example, could be easily remedied by placing restrictions on the physician's licence).
Several physicians have been disciplined for allegedly failing to comply with these guidelines, including five to date who have signed "never reapply" undertakings.
