Health professionals say Houston government's bill could have 'unintended consequences'

The Houston government plans to pass a bill this fall that Nova Scotia's College of Physicians and Surgeons, the College of Nursing and 19 other regulators in the sector are concerned may have "unintended consequences."

The group that represents the province's 21 health regulators has asked for more time to study Bill 323, an Act to Provide a Common Legislative Foundation for Regulated Health Professions. The proposed law sets out what a regulator is and what it does.

But for the second time this year, the Houston government is proposing changes that the regulators object to or question.

Despite that, Health Minister Michelle Thompson told CBC News on Wednesday the proposed law will proceed.

"We've been working on this bill for a while," said Thompson. "We've introduced it this session and we are hopeful and expecting that it will pass this session. And what it does is really modernizes the legislation around our regulated professions."

In a presentation to the law amendments committee on Tuesday, the Nova Scotia Regulated Health Professions Network said updating the law that governs regulators was needed. But given the complexity of the bill, its members needed more than "one business day" to examine the proposed law.

"This is simply not sufficient time in the context of such impactful legislation," said Ryan Baxter, a lawyer presenting the network.

"Only a small number of the sections of this act are intended to come into effect on royal assent," said Baxter. "The bulk of the provisions will take years to take effect and will only happen after regulations are made. Why the rush?"

Thompson said that, similar to the Patient Access to Care Act that was passed by the Houston government last spring, these changes were designed to allow the government to be "more agile" on health-care delivery. At the time, regulators worried those changes might erode their power and control, compromising public safety. 

'Errors and irregularities'

In its written submission to the law amendments committee, the network proposed more than two dozen changes to fix "errors and irregularities" in Bill 323.

In that document, the network highlighted one change which would allow students "to practice without any form of licensing as long as the students' school has authorised such practice."

The network called it a "significant delegation of authority for a regulator to say that if a school permits, a student can engage in practice" and added that they need "to ensure there are no unintended consequences or risks to the public regarding a provision of this nature."

The network also took issue with a provision in the law that requires a professional conduct committee to issue a written decision within 30 days of the conclusion of this hearing, saying that "is not a realistic timeline, given the expectations set by our courts to provide detailed reasons for all these decisions that must stand up to judicial scrutiny."

Department reviewing recommendations

The proposed law includes a clause that gives the health minister the power to "direct how a regulatory body must exercise its mandate if it is in the public interest to do so."

The network called the provision "exceptionally broad."

Thompson said officials in her department were looking at the network's recommendations to determine if the bill needed to be amended.

"We'll look at that submission and some of the changes that they have proposed and we'll get back to you in terms of whether those will be accepted and whether or not it changes the intention of the bill," Thompson said.