Car chases, gun fights, moonlight romance, and riveting drama are all things you won't find in this episode! However, you will find important information regarding Bill-36 in B.C. How will it affect healthcare providers? How will it affect the public? Find out now on the Recovery Machine Podcast!
#bill36 #healthprofessionsbc #drugaddiction #drugpolicy
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Welcome everybody to Recovery Machine.
Nathan:I'm your co-host, Nathan.
Nathan:Join as always by my co-host and your co-host.
Nathan:Corey, how you doing, Corey?
Nathan:Hey, I'm doing
Corey:all.
Corey:How are you doing?
Corey:Good.
Nathan:Uh, I don't know.
Nathan:I, I don't feel very good today.
Nathan:I'm filled with anger.
Nathan:Mm-hmm.
Nathan:, and, uh, I've been doing good with anger for a while, so it's, I'm
Nathan:just trying to, uh, let it be and kind of examine it from an, uh, an
Nathan:observer's point of view if possible.
Nathan:That something I've been working on with meditation is to try to step back
Nathan:and, uh, just really look at my thoughts as they come along, and then kind of
Nathan:from a point of kindness, examine them and take them for what they are and
Nathan:then learn from them as they come by.
Nathan:But, ever since yesterday.
Nathan:I, I felt very locked into my body and, uh, unable to step back.
Nathan:And then I realized that there's an interesting thing happening there
Nathan:where the more frustrated I become with the world in general, and
Nathan:that's partly to do with, I think, researching the topic that we mm-hmm.
Nathan:researching here.
Nathan:Mm-hmm.
Nathan:, but that frustration tends to, uh, accumulate.
Nathan:And then I become, I have this kind of smoldering like, uh,
Nathan:anger I guess, and, uh mm-hmm.
Nathan:what it wa what it makes me want to do is use drugs.
Nathan:It's, uh, it's interesting how it, it's such a clear path from
Nathan:fear, anger, and then hopelessness, and then from hopelessness to
Nathan:like, just fuck it, you know?
Nathan:Yeah.
Nathan:And.
Nathan:Yeah.
Nathan:I mean, it's not, I'm not the type of guy, I don't believe I'm at the
Nathan:point in my life where even if I did go and use a whole bunch of drugs, I
Nathan:could probably get myself out of it.
Nathan:Uh, that's not, I don't think it's ever healthy to try to use
Nathan:drugs to, it's, I feel the same way about any kind of behavior.
Nathan:But I mean, same with drinking, right?
Nathan:There's a difference between celebrating and, uh, trying to escape your problems.
Nathan:Mm-hmm.
Nathan:. And, uh, that's what I feel like doing.
Nathan:I've put myself in a position where I don't have access to.
Nathan:Um, those things are not easy to obtain.
Nathan:At least they're not at arms, within arms reach.
Nathan:And that's kind of the best thing.
Nathan:I think.
Nathan:Um, it might be, might be trouble for me to have those things just laying
Nathan:around when I'm feeling like this, but it is a, it's something to pay
Nathan:attention to, I think if, mm-hmm.
Nathan:you are a person who has had problems with drugs in the past, such as myself,
Nathan:and I believe you as well, Corey.
Nathan:. Corey: Yeah.
Nathan:You know, it's, it's such a, I can relate to how you feel in the last 24 hours
Nathan:and it, it, it's not the first time with either with you or with other friends.
Nathan:I have where once you kind of say it, you realize that
Nathan:you're on the same wavelength,
Nathan:And that's one of the cool things about saying it.
Nathan:That's one of the benefits of saying it, is that you, you are vulnerable
Nathan:and then you end up usually, hopefully learning about other people.
Nathan:And, and it lets other people share that too, because I have had sort
Nathan:of similar feelings and it's just been, uh, specifically just some
Nathan:stress over, over, uh, childcare of my four-year-old and stuff.
Nathan:That's not about me.
Nathan:Nothing that I kind of, it's not a personal thing, it's just sort of.
Nathan:The approach of the school and kind of what to do next about it and what the
Nathan:next steps will be, and not liking the, their delivery of that information and
Nathan:created a lot of, a lot of stress in me.
Nathan:A lot of like stressful thinking about like the uncertainty and, and feeling some
Nathan:distrust there, feeling some angst there.
Nathan:But what I really noticed in myself, and this has been over the last little
Nathan:while, is that I always used to describe, like, my reaction to tension and stress
Nathan:as being in my chest and being in like, you know, the center of my body.
Nathan:More, what I noticed lately is that it's much more in my head.
Nathan:Hmm.
Nathan:But that, that feeling of stress is much more like, feels like, um, not a, not a
Nathan:conventional headache, but it feels like an actual cloud or obstruction within my.
Nathan:Interesting.
Nathan:Which is not a good feeling.
Nathan:. No.
Nathan:Is it clouding your ability to think coherently?
Nathan:Like does it feel like brain fog or does it just feel like a, uh, type
Nathan:of, uh, angst, like a mental angst?
Nathan:Uh, I would
Corey:say, well, I, I would say both.
Corey:Both brain fog, um, in that it's like I feel locked into like a,
Corey:a pretty negative perspective.
Corey:Yeah.
Corey:Um, and unable to kind of like, and I, and maybe there's part of that
Corey:is the solution is that you can't necessarily think your way out of
Nathan:it.
Nathan:No.
Nathan:No.
Nathan:You can't.
Nathan:Sometimes there's a limit to the intellect
Corey:and part of that is that you have to kind of, uh, sometimes feel your way
Corey:out of it or physically work your way out of it, or express your way out of it.
Corey:But it won't necessarily come with like a physical, like, uh,
Corey:with just like a cognitive, okay.
Corey:I just gotta think this through.
Corey:Yeah.
Corey:Cause that, at least for me
Nathan:yesterday, that wasn't working.
Nathan:It's really interesting that you say that because I, I was just, last
Nathan:night I was considering cognitive behavioral therapy and Me too.
Nathan:What a useful tool it is.
Nathan:Mm-hmm.
Nathan:. And yet it is limited in that, I think, uh, it's almost a trap to
Nathan:believe that you can think your way out of this problem entirely.
Nathan:Yeah.
Nathan:And, and by this problem, I mean, negative thinking in general, or this
Nathan:feeling of, uh, kind of angst or, you know, the human condition where you
Nathan:extend yourself out into the future and, and feel anxious about that.
Nathan:You can do the brain training with those pathways and that's fine, but it's the,
Nathan:at some point you've gotta look at that kind of, uh, thought behavior, emotion
Nathan:cycle and step back and just be okay with not knowing what's gonna happen and
Nathan:realize that you're not in control of.
Nathan:, even those things all the time, and you just can't be mm-hmm.
Nathan:and that's okay.
Nathan:Mm-hmm.
Nathan:. Mm-hmm.
Nathan:. So that's what I believe is the, is the answer is taking like a, almost like a
Nathan:blind faith approach to it and stepping back and realizing that if you acknowledge
Nathan:the feelings that are happening, whatever it is in your life that are
Nathan:causing those feelings, then eventually some grace will appear and you'll
Nathan:kind of be able to get back on track.
Nathan:Mm-hmm.
Nathan:, but it requires a faith in the system of this reality or, or whatever God
Nathan:you believe in, or, or, you know, some kind of, uh, spiritual faith of some
Nathan:sort, I think, to, to do that, right?
Nathan:Mm-hmm.
Nathan:, Corey: and then it, it's like the old
Nathan:that I've heard from people in, in the community and have experienced myself.
Nathan:It's one thing to do those pieces of maintenance when you're feeling
Nathan:okay, but pulling yourself through that fog or congestion or whatever
Nathan:you wanna call it, and saying, okay, now I'm gonna do that maintenance.
Nathan:Now I'm gonna go and lift weights for an hour, or I'm gonna just scribble
Nathan:out some piece of art to just see what comes out and like pushing
Nathan:through and doing those things.
Nathan:This is the critical time to, to put that into practice.
Nathan:And so I, it is, you know, last week I did, I had had a really good week with
Nathan:getting back into some weight lifting and doing some, working out at home and stuff.
Nathan:And then yesterday we ended up being too busy of a day.
Nathan:As you know, the day sort of got away from me, but like, I've got
Nathan:time today gonna make that happen.
Nathan:Cuz now's the time to really put that into practice.
Nathan:Yeah.
Nathan:Yeah.
Nathan:It's always, uh, yeah, I've, I've noticed that especially with like, I,
Nathan:I have the most resistance to doing, uh, like cardio training cuz it's,
Nathan:I think mentally it's harder, right?
Nathan:Mm-hmm.
Nathan:. Mm-hmm.
Nathan:, um, , and it's always when I'm like, you know what?
Nathan:I don't even think I can do it.
Nathan:I feel too, I'm too tired.
Nathan:I, I just, you know, I'd rather take a nap or whatever.
Nathan:But that is exactly the time when I need to get out there and run or, or do
Nathan:something that gets a blood because it, it is, uh, you're right, it's tough when
Nathan:you, uh, you try to apply these things when things are not as bright and cheery
Nathan:and I don't know, maybe it's, uh, I'm finding this time of year, I, I know it's
Nathan:a, you know, we talk about it a lot or whatever, but I, I really thought that,
Nathan:that January had like 45 or 50 days in it.
Nathan:Yeah, . It was the longest January on record for me.
Nathan:I mean, it was just like, I, I, what am I in a time dilation here?
Nathan:I don't understand what's going on.
Nathan:It's on and on and on.
Nathan:But here we are, . Yeah,
Corey:no, it's so true.
Corey:I had the same thought about it.
Corey:Like, uh, in looking at our kind of tracking the, some of the
Corey:podcasts from the month of January and then being like, oh my God,
Corey:we got 10 days left in this month.
Corey:Yeah, . We still have five days left in the month.
Corey:Yeah, no, it's true.
Corey:Yeah, I think that's probably a fairly common experience, right.
Nathan:for sure.
Nathan:Yeah.
Nathan:Good opportunity to thank all our new listeners as well.
Nathan:We've, uh, definitely got a little more traction now on the audio side, and we're
Nathan:starting to see some, uh, some solid data as far as, uh, lots of shares going
Nathan:on, on, on Facebook and stuff like that.
Nathan:Mm-hmm.
Nathan:that is, uh, really appreciated and it, it definitely encourag us, encourages
Nathan:us to, uh, continue what we're doing.
Nathan:Even the people who, who aren't happy with some of the things we're saying, we are
Nathan:fine with that because we make mistakes and, uh, we have different ideas about
Nathan:different things in the world of recovery.
Nathan:And, uh, so do other people and that's all fine.
Nathan:We're here to, we're here to
Corey:learn.
Corey:Totally.
Corey:And I might be wrong, but I think that today's topic might
Corey:be a, a divisive topic as well.
Nathan:Nathan . Well, it's an interesting one.
Nathan:What we're gonna do today is talk about Bill 36.
Nathan:This was a bill that was passed quietly last year.
Nathan:They've been working on it, I think as far back as, I suppose you
Nathan:could say, maybe 2018 or earlier.
Nathan:Mm-hmm.
Nathan:. And, uh, what the bill is about is basically regulating the regulators.
Nathan:Yeah.
Nathan:So we're talking about colleges for healthcare professionals
Nathan:in British Columbia.
Nathan:So there's, I think, 20 in existence, uh, 25 potentials, something like that.
Nathan:And these are bodies that are self-governed.
Nathan:So like, uh, using my own college as an example, the College of Pharmacists,
Nathan:they're tasked with basically licensing pharmacies, licensing pharmacists.
Nathan:They make acts and guidelines for us to follow as far as
Nathan:practice policies concerned.
Nathan:Their number one mandate is to protect the public.
Nathan:So I guess what the, what the idea is here is that they're,
Nathan:they're looking to modernize the, uh, health Professionals Act.
Nathan:So it'll be the Health Professionals and Occupations Act.
Nathan:and there's a few stages that took place over the last few years where
Nathan:they gathered information to do this, uh, to move forward with this.
Nathan:So I think it was November 24th last year, it, uh, received royal
Nathan:ascension, which is, uh, that's pretty, that's pretty heady governmental,
Nathan:uh, verbiage there, uh, royal asce.
Nathan:So that means it became a, uh, became an act, and then we're waiting to
Nathan:hear there's gonna be a date of implement, uh, implementation for this.
Nathan:So it, it's going to affect every healthcare professional in British
Nathan:Columbia in some way, shape, or form.
Nathan:We've both looked at this and we've kind of, uh, just to get a better understanding
Nathan:of how the, the bill came about, how it got passed, what the province is
Nathan:trying to do, and ultimately how we're looking at it from a, uh, healthcare
Nathan:professional point of view, just because obviously that's where our experience
Nathan:lies, but there's also concerns with the way, the way this is tilted and,
Nathan:uh, that might be a point of contention, but we'll, we'll kind of move through
Nathan:it and, and go for some pros and cons and see what everybody thinks about it.
Nathan:Yeah.
Nathan:You know,
Corey:this is, the timing of, of this, of us doing this
Corey:discussion is so interesting.
Corey:I, I live in the Fraser Valley and there are two spots within
Corey:my daily drives that I take that have been over the last two years.
Corey:A year and a half maybe have been consistently, uh, labeled with graffiti.
Corey:And the, the graffiti is, is consistently anti anti-government, anti-vaccine,
Corey:primarily anti-vaccine, I would say in these two different spots on my
Corey:drive that i'll, and usually some poetic message about the harm of
Corey:the vaccines and stuff like that.
Corey:And interestingly, this week, those pieces of graffiti have
Corey:been replaced with large antibi,
Nathan:36 graffiti . Wow.
Nathan:And this
Corey:morning, you know, there was a, probably a, a 10 foot long
Corey:strip in this entryway into the city that, you know, stopped Bill
Corey:36 with a big skulling crossbones.
Corey:So kind of interesting, this to me that says this is such a politically
Corey:loaded, divisive issue much more.
Corey:I mean, it's much more than meets the eye.
Corey:And it's mu it's so much about the politics in Canada right now, the politics
Corey:of healthcare and the influence of politics on that than just like, , oh,
Corey:we gotta clean up these regulators.
Corey:So, and this is where the, the discussion I think in, in social media and stuff
Corey:will probably come in and we welcome that.
Corey:But I think we want to just sort of be, we have, you and I have our
Corey:own, it is no shock or surprise that we are not necessarily
Corey:friends of the regulators mm-hmm.
Corey:Yeah.
Corey:On this podcast that we've been very critical of, of these,
Corey:some of these regulatory bodies.
Corey:Yeah.
Corey:And have, and have said before this bill passed that we want to see
Corey:changes and want to see reform.
Corey:But that doesn't mean we're not gonna pick this apart and let the
Corey:government off easy with this either.
Corey:Cuz I think it, there's both sides to this for sure.
Nathan:Yeah.
Nathan:Yeah.
Nathan:Absolutely.
Nathan:Uh, , I've been, I don't know how many, it probably, when they started looking into
Nathan:this was probably when I really started reaching out across Canada, trying to
Nathan:understand who was in charge of these, these colleges and, and what possible
Nathan:ramifications or reprimands they could.
Nathan:Receive from, uh, some sort of an oversight body.
Nathan:And I was told that there really wasn't anything in place but
Nathan:that something was coming.
Nathan:So that was, I think, as far back as 2020.
Nathan:And since that time, I've heard, I've, I've been in contact with people
Nathan:who were closer to these regulatory affairs and, and they kind of echoed
Nathan:that same belief that, that something was coming and it was probably gonna
Nathan:be bad news for some of the colleges.
Nathan:Mm-hmm.
Nathan:, whether this Bill 36 Health Professionals and Occupations Act is bad news.
Nathan:I think it will, it will depend very much on how this is rolled out.
Nathan:So I guess what got this going is, uh, public criticisms mainly about,
Nathan:this is hard to understand from a, a healthcare professional's point of view.
Nathan:Believe me, it's.
Nathan:if you're on the ground and the amount of flack you receive for every complaint that
Nathan:is valid, it's difficult to calculate.
Nathan:Mm-hmm.
Nathan:, I mean, people are wild and they're especially wild when they're sick,
Nathan:hurting, or have been waiting for a long time or just found out they
Nathan:have to pay for something they don't think they have, they should pay for.
Nathan:So . Nevertheless, the belief is that the current colleges, uh, under
Nathan:the Health Professions Act, has enabled cultures that can sometimes
Nathan:promote the interests of professions over the interests of the public.
Nathan:What do you think when you, when you hear that as a, uh, a motivator for this bill?
Nathan:I see a lot of
Corey:truth in that statement.
Corey:I think there is a, a, what comes across as a, uh, first
Corey:of all, a lack of transparency.
Corey:, Nathan: there's a huge
Corey:Yeah.
Corey:Which there's several parts of this, of this document that get
Corey:into that peaceable transparency.
Corey:I think that there's a self-serving nature that it comes across and, and in
Corey:thinking about my own experience with, with dealing with the regulatory body,
Corey:that it was, that they were protecting the profession to the utmost and then
Corey:protecting the public, protecting me was not a, even though I was a part of the
Corey:profession that wasn't their interest.
Corey:And that's okay.
Corey:That's not their mandate.
Corey:Yeah.
Corey:But I think it, it certainly fe felt that the protection of the image of
Corey:the profession and then interests of the profession were first, and then the
Corey:piece about protecting the public was second at the time that I went through
Nathan:that.
Nathan:Yeah.
Nathan:That's a, that's a really good way to parse this out because.
Nathan:I think it's, it's hard for me when I look at this and, and I see the idea that, uh,
Nathan:the interest of the profession is coming.
Nathan:First.
Nathan:I, when I, when I read that, at first I look at it and I say, well, you're
Nathan:talking about the interests of the people who are in the profession.
Nathan:But that's, that's not really what it is.
Nathan:No.
Nathan:That the colleges don't, I, I, as far as my dealings with the, the College
Nathan:of Pharmacy are concerned, I am simply a statistic that spits out money.
Nathan:That's it.
Nathan:That's all I am to them.
Nathan:Mm-hmm.
Nathan:, they know how many there are of me, , and they collect a tremendous amount of fees.
Nathan:And for that money, you get very little and they're at no time in my career
Nathan:have I ever felt that my college was there to protect me as a professional.
Nathan:No, never.
Nathan:No, no.
Nathan:Same.
Nathan:Quite the opposite.
Nathan:But the idea that they want to protect the image of the profession so that
Nathan:they can continue to exist as an entity, that feeling is palpable.
Nathan:Yeah.
Nathan:, and I can only speak towards a, I, I mean, I've had dealings with, uh, you know,
Nathan:mostly the, the College of Pharmacy, but also a lot with the, um, the College of
Nathan:Nurses and, and midwives, and not so much with the College of Physicians, although
Nathan:I do pay attention to what goes on there.
Nathan:And I think they could maybe take a little bit of blame for some of this
Nathan:, uh, especially with their, uh, wildly inappropriate judgment on the conflict
Nathan:of interest scenario with monitoring, backing up the, the clinic down at the
Nathan:coast there, that was, it was an obvious conflict of interest the way they had
Nathan:their, their clinic set up there, and the public did complain about that and
Nathan:the college backed them up, so, mm-hmm.
Nathan:So if you are not prepared to do what you're supposed to do, which is
Nathan:regulate your members in a way that is ethically sound, then you can
Nathan:expect to have some concern raised.
Nathan:Maybe that's indicative of, of some of the types of actions that have
Nathan:led the province down this path.
Nathan:. Yeah.
Nathan:One of the things they're gonna do here is Amal amalgamate colleges.
Nathan:Mm-hmm.
Nathan:. So they want to bring the, well, the total number of, uh, professional disciplines
Nathan:is 25 in this province, and they're going to make six colleges outta that.
Nathan:Yeah.
Nathan:So they'll be regulating some professions that were not regulated,
Nathan:and then there'll be amalgamating.
Nathan:Uh, there's two big amalgamations, and then they're also
Nathan:grouped everybody together.
Nathan:And I guess, uh, we, we can look at that a little bit closer in a bit here.
Nathan:But the other concern they had is that the colleges are not meeting changing
Nathan:patient and family expectations regarding transparency and accountability.
Nathan:. And finally they just used the word inefficient.
Nathan:Mm-hmm.
Nathan:and, uh, the inefficient one is, is at a level now where I
Nathan:would say it is not sustainable.
Nathan:I just looked at the College of Pharmacists financials for 2021.
Nathan:They take in over 10 million a year, but they have less than a hundred members.
Nathan:Mm-hmm.
Nathan:, there's a less than a hundred people working there, but they're
Nathan:taking in 10 million in just fees.
Nathan:Yeah.
Nathan:So you do the math on that and you look at, uh, they have their building lease
Nathan:there, they have their investments, they have everything on there.
Nathan:And it's like, that means that every single person, regardless
Nathan:of whether you're a receptionist or uh, the c e o, every person is
Nathan:making much more than a pharmacist.
Nathan:Yes.
Nathan:What's the justification for that?
Nathan:Yeah.
Nathan:I, what are they doing?
Nathan:You know, why are we.
Nathan:, why would a, uh, college registrant pay them for the
Nathan:services that we're receiving?
Nathan:If it's the public that they're mandated to protect, then
Nathan:let the public pay for them.
Nathan:Yeah.
Nathan:You know, if you're gonna be that wildly inefficient, then guess what?
Nathan:Maybe the government's gonna come in and, and, uh, police you.
Nathan:That's mm-hmm.
Nathan:, that's kind of, I, I like, I, I understand why there would be concerns.
Nathan:Right?
Nathan:Sure.
Corey:And the same thing has happened within nursing is that those fees
Corey:have went up and up and up every year.
Corey:They amalgamated with the midwives prior to this bill
Corey:amalgamated with practical nurses.
Corey:They have, you know, there's over 40,000 registered nurses in the province.
Nathan:Um, 50, 59,000 members now in that, in that thousand members.
Nathan:Yeah.
Nathan:So, yeah, I mean, they are taking in a large sum of money.
Nathan:That is way over and above.
Nathan:Like, I don't know how much union dues are in comparison, but I can't
Nathan:imagine that they're that much.
Nathan:One of the things I, I thought when looking at this new bill is that if
Nathan:these colleges are amalgamated and you end up with, you know, instead
Nathan:of six different colleges, say four, like the naturopaths, uh, Chinese
Nathan:herbal medicine acupuncturists, can't remember, there's a few that are being,
Nathan:uh, put into like a natural Yeah.
Nathan:Healthcare group psychologist.
Nathan:What's another one?
Nathan:Yeah.
Nathan:So if, if everybody goes into this, this group, and they're talking about
Nathan:streamlining the process, when I hear the word streamlining from a government,
Nathan:uh, body, I, I mean there's a little bit of cynicism that automatically
Nathan:comes up there, but let's say they do what they're gonna, they say they're
Nathan:gonna do, and instead of, uh, a combination of maybe 200 members over
Nathan:six colleges, they get it down to 50.
Nathan:So the vast majority of the money and dollars you are spending in
Nathan:fees, when those go to the college is for those people's salaries.
Nathan:It dwarfs everything else by, it's, it probably 90% of
Nathan:their expenses is salaries.
Nathan:Mm-hmm.
Nathan:. So if we're to see a streamlining occur and through these amalgamations
Nathan:we drop from 200 employees down to 50, I, I don't know what they're doing
Nathan:in there most of the time anyway.
Nathan:Honestly, I can't imagine that the, they process everything so slowly, it's wildly
Nathan:inefficient, but let's say they're able to continue doing what they're supposed
Nathan:to do with the quarter of the workforce.
Nathan:That means we should see if your college has been amalgamated, we,
Nathan:you should see a drop in fees.
Nathan:If you don't see a drop in fees, then right away there's a problem.
Nathan:Yeah.
Nathan:Yeah.
Nathan:And
Nathan:I
Corey:guess time will tell.
Corey:We'll have to see with, with particularly these amalgamated bodies, the, where there
Corey:are, uh, it's a whole pool of colleges.
Corey:It'll be very interesting to see what happens to the fees there.
Corey:You know what the Caden report, which is the, the report on these governing
Corey:bodies that kind of led to this bill, it criticized the, the lack of transparency
Corey:for the public in regards to timelines,
Corey:And that was, you know, that's one that we're really quite familiar with.
Corey:And, and the concern is that the public makes a complaint about,
Corey:about a, a pharmacist or a nurse.
Corey:And then they don't hear, and they don't hear, and they don't
Corey:hear, they don't get the update.
Corey:They don't know when the investigation is gonna happen,
Corey:and it goes on and on and on.
Corey:Well, this is true for, for both sides, that there has been a, a lack
Corey:of transparency yet in terms of being the person on the other side, being
Corey:the professional on the side that needs to answer to the, to the college.
Corey:There's usually quite a strict time to respond, like, oh yeah,
Corey:re respond to this email within.
Nathan:40 hours, 48
Corey:hours, something like that.
Corey:Or you know, please send your, um, you know, your letter response, which
Corey:is a, if you've been investigated by the college, your letter of response
Corey:is kind of your singular piece of, of voice and your singular time
Corey:to, um, kind of make a, a rebuttal.
Corey:There's a strict timeline there, but there hasn't been a timeline.
Corey:no.
Corey:In the process otherwise, and no timeframe where they say we
Corey:are, we will be accountable.
Corey:We will conclude our investigation within 60 days or, or whatever it may be.
Corey:Mm-hmm.
Corey:. So that's one where I hear Okay.
Corey:Some accountability there.
Corey:Uh, in terms of your just timeframes alone, that seems like a fair request
Corey:to make of, of these governing bodies.
Nathan:is super fair request.
Nathan:Uh, sorry to cut you off there.
Nathan:I just, Nope.
Nathan:Do you have any faith, like looking at, looking at this, and it's one
Nathan:thing to put uh, a bunch of words down on paper about what's gonna happen,
Nathan:but can you imagine any circumstances where they reduce the members?
Nathan:Like they're, they're gonna leave the College of Pharmacy alone as far as it,
Nathan:it will stand alone, but there won't be any more elected members on the board.
Nathan:Right?
Nathan:So that means that the government is gonna decide who sits on the board and
Nathan:it's going to be half public and half professionals because they want the
Nathan:all appointed by the government though.
Nathan:That's right.
Nathan:Yeah.
Nathan:So I guess the, the, the part that's difficult to believe is that you're
Nathan:going to make that change to an already wildly inefficient entity.
Nathan:and then expect them to adhere to guidelines regarding time and
Nathan:communications with the public.
Nathan:Mm-hmm.
Nathan:, my question would be, what happens if they don't?
Nathan:And how soon do you affect ? How soon do you expect these changes
Nathan:to come into, uh, into play?
Nathan:Mm-hmm.
Nathan:, Corey: this was maybe the most,
Nathan:that whole document to me.
Nathan:Like the idea of looking at how these boards are, are made up.
Nathan:Fair enough.
Nathan:The idea, and this is where I can empathize with the public
Nathan:criticism, that like, hold on here.
Nathan:All of the members will be appointed by the government, by the Ministry of Health.
Nathan:It's hard not to feel cynical
Nathan:about that.
Nathan:Yeah.
Nathan:Because aren't you then just facing the same problem?
Nathan:I mean, is there anybody out there who thinks that the government is all
Nathan:of a sudden gonna turn into a super efficient, non bureaucratic monster?
Nathan:Right.
Nathan:Well,
Corey:no, for sure.
Corey:And.
Corey:Additionally, is there any, anyone out there who doesn't think that there will
Corey:be some political motivation in the assignment of people to a given board?
Corey:Of course, a and particularly given that substance use and drugs are,
Corey:are a big, have become in the last couple of years, a big political
Corey:issue and drug policy and safe supply and legalization and all that stuff.
Corey:Or decrem rather, what will happen to these boards if, if there's a
Corey:change in politics in the province.
Corey:And right now we have a, we have a, a new premier, a rel, you know, within
Corey:the last couple of months here, a new premier, but the same party that's,
Corey:that's been in power for some time.
Corey:Mm-hmm.
Corey:, if that mm-hmm.
Corey:. if and when, cuz this is what happens in politics is there
Corey:will be a, a another shift.
Corey:What will happen to those boards, and I don't, I'm not claiming to know the
Corey:answer here, but potentially those boards could be then replaced by a much
Corey:more anti-drug or conservative base.
Corey:And that will assuredly influence the board decisions, the review
Corey:decisions, the decisions on penalties or, or, um, restrictions that are put
Corey:on workers or nurses or pharmacists or whoever who are found to have
Corey:developed an issue of substance use.
Corey:There will be an implication that goes that
Nathan:far down.
Nathan:I think certainly, for example, look what would happen if we just moved Alberta's
Nathan:regulation bodies over to bc Right?
Nathan:And they took over overnight.
Nathan:Yeah.
Nathan:Imagine the different outcomes you'd have with healthcare professionals.
Nathan:And the other thing that is interesting to me is that this does seem like a.
Nathan:It's a very public safety centered, at least that that's how it comes across
Nathan:is that this is all about public safety.
Nathan:Will that translate to more healthcare professionals being dismissed?
Nathan:I mean, it seems like they're really stepping up the, the wording,
Nathan:especially like they're gonna take a hard line stance on, uh, accusations
Nathan:of sexual misconduct for sure.
Nathan:Mm-hmm.
Nathan:and culturally, uh, discriminatory practices.
Nathan:And those are serious issues that, that of course, need to be addressed.
Nathan:My concern would be one of kind of fair and, and due process, and I'm sure that's
Nathan:one thing that comes with the territory when you're working for one of these
Nathan:colleges, is you're probably inundated with a, an absurd number of complaints.
Nathan:Uh, just volume wise, and then you have to go through all those complaints.
Nathan:And I would imagine that from what I've seen, 90% of those are just
Nathan:people who are angry at the doctor or dentist or psychologist, or because
Nathan:they didn't agree with a diagnosis.
Nathan:Whatever.
Nathan:People, when they get upset, they tend to complain.
Nathan:And many times it's not a, um, you know, the, the healthcare professional acted
Nathan:like a human being and did the best they could with the, the situation.
Nathan:So I don't know if there'll be more of a no tolerance kind of, uh, aspect to that.
Nathan:And if so, How does that factor into the equation when we're looking at a
Nathan:doctor shortage, a pharmacist shortage, nurses who are just walking off the
Nathan:job, how do we maintain the structure of the healthcare system if there is
Nathan:going to be a stricter, less nuanced approach to these types of complaints?
Nathan:Yeah,
Corey:really good question.
Corey:And I'm not sure that they have been concerned about that this whole time.
Corey:Like just this year we are seeing, you know, that they're, they're looking at
Corey:expediting the process of getting licenses for newcomers to Canada who ha have
Corey:that certification or have that license.
Corey:And now they come to Canada and, and it's usually a bureaucratic
Corey:nightmare to get through that, to get licensed to work here.
Corey:So they've said that they're gonna commit to improving that.
Corey:Other than that, I, it hasn't seemed that they've been concerned about
Corey:people walking away from the profession.
Corey:And that change probably says to me that, that will continue
Corey:and potentially get much, much.
Corey:more prominent that there will be more
Corey:people
Nathan:walking away, I would think.
Nathan:Yeah.
Nathan:, I thought it was interesting that they brought an expert in from the uk mm-hmm.
Nathan:to do this, uh, to do the 2018.
Nathan:Um, Harry, uh, was it Caton?
Nathan:Caton, yeah.
Nathan:Yeah.
Nathan:So this guy's an expert in college, uh, regulatory affairs and it's fuel
Nathan:for the conspiratorial fire because there's, there's a lot of, uh, kind
Nathan:of talk, at least in social media about how the UK is our future.
Nathan:If you look at what's happening with the UK's medical healthcare system,
Nathan:it's slightly ahead of us in its decay, but heading towards the same end,
Nathan:which is inevitable privatization.
Nathan:Mm-hmm.
Nathan:. And there is concern that some of.
Nathan:Pressure that's being put on their medical system.
Nathan:Undue pressure is from parties who are interested in moving that forward faster.
Nathan:So I thought it was interesting that you would bring somebody over from the place
Nathan:that is having the exact same problem as us, only they're further down the road.
Nathan:to do that study here.
Nathan:Mm-hmm.
Nathan:just a, just a funny coincidence and I'm sure there's nothing there, but,
Nathan:and looking over the guy's work, I, I thought he, everything that
Nathan:he, that he said was, was accurate.
Nathan:I'm not sure what got them interested in the dental college, but there
Nathan:must have been something there that, that got them going cuz.
Nathan:They're the first ones they looked at.
Nathan:Oh, yeah.
Nathan:So his kind of summation of what was going on, there was a very articulate, polite,
Nathan:general statement, which equated to, there is a potential for a lot of corruption
Nathan:here in that there's, uh, maybe protection of the, the entity of the college
Nathan:itself that doesn't serve the public.
Nathan:There is efficiency problems throughout.
Nathan:There is too many board members, there is too many committees, there is too
Nathan:much, uh, there's too many colleges, uh, for oral health professionals.
Nathan:I mean, so that's fine.
Nathan:I just thought it was funny that they, they brought somebody in from
Nathan:the UK if people knew that maybe there'd be some eyebrows raised there.
Nathan:did you get a chance to go over his report a little bit there?
Corey:A bit, yeah.
Corey:Specifically going back to the idea that, you know, one of the concerns
Corey:that was raised in the report was that, that people, that on these boards that
Corey:make that do the review process end up making the decisions about licensing
Corey:or about any kind of penalty paid by the, by the professional, was that
Corey:the profession, the professionals who work within that profession, so the
Corey:pharmacists who then sit on the board of the College of Pharmacists, that
Corey:they are paid more than the public members, there are more of them.
Corey:So there is an, a power imbalance there.
Corey:Mm-hmm.
Corey:. So one of the recommendations again was that, that there's equal pay
Corey:between public members of the board and professional members of the board.
Corey:And that a better sort of balance is struck.
Corey:Right.
Corey:The other recommendation was that there would be, particularly for
Corey:these, he spoke to the, like the, the amalgamated colleges that there would be.
Corey:Sort of subcommittees that would look at the interests of each specific profession.
Corey:So if there was a, um, an occupational therapist, for example, who an
Corey:issue arose with or a complaint arose with, there would be people
Corey:that had a specific approach to the occupational therapy profession.
Corey:I had concern when I initially read that and then going back to reread
Corey:that they had said, well, no, no, we would, we would set something up so
Corey:that there could be some oversight of these specific professions.
Nathan:How do they know that the members of the public that are sitting
Nathan:on those boards have enough of a background in healthcare even to, to
Nathan:be able to make judgments like that?
Nathan:Right.
Nathan:So
Corey:I, I think that's the.
Corey:Uh, I guess they're just saying that they would, they would
Nathan:be, um, so they're gonna set up another committee to make sure
Nathan:that that committee is, uh, yeah.
Corey:Okay.
Corey:Okay.
Corey:And there's a few examples of that where, where, where the bureaucracy
Corey:is being, um, uh, fortified . Right.
Corey:Well, this it's being simultaneously paired down and fortified
Corey:. Nathan: That's right.
Corey:I guess, uh, I'm just gonna quickly, uh, go over the information that we have for
Corey:amalgamations so people know if they're listening, what, who's going where.
Corey:Sure.
Corey:Uh, the College of Doctors and, uh, physicians and surgeons is
Corey:not amalgamating with anybody.
Corey:They're, they're staying put, college of Pharmacy is staying put.
Corey:The amalgamations that we know about so far are for the, they're gonna put the
Corey:dieticians, occupational therapists, opticians, optometrists, physical
Corey:therapists, psychologists, and speech and hearing professionals under one banner.
Corey:And that's a large banner right there.
Corey:There's quite a bit of, uh, quite a difference between a
Corey:optometrist and a psychologist.
Corey:Yeah, huge.
Corey:Another one they're gonna do is chiropractors, massage therapists,
Corey:naturopathic physicians, traditional Chinese medicine, and
Corey:acupuncturists into one regulator.
Corey:That one feels
Corey:a little bit more cohesive.
Nathan:I don't quite understand how you're going to put all those
Nathan:colleges together and then pair them down and get more work out of them.
Nathan:I guess that's my concern.
Nathan:Mm-hmm.
Nathan:, like, how do you get these people who are sitting in these very cushy positions
Nathan:where there's, there hasn't been anybody watching them work for a long time.
Nathan:Right.
Nathan:They, they just, I mean, I don't know if they have any kind of,
Nathan:uh, oversight as far as how much they're supposed to get done.
Nathan:Mm-hmm.
Nathan:, but based on the timelines that I've seen with colleges, there appears to be nobody.
Nathan:There's nobody cracking the whip, basically.
Nathan:Yeah.
Nathan:And, uh, how do you navigate that if you're trying to implement this bill?
Nathan:You know, you're taking, let's see, there's one too.
Nathan:There's like, say you're taking seven different colleges that exist, and
Nathan:these are small colleges with, uh, probably not many people in them, but
Nathan:say there's, let's, uh, conservatively say there's 70 people working.
Nathan:Mm-hmm.
Nathan:. So you're gonna pair that down.
Nathan:Maybe cut half the jobs, you're down to 35 and now you're taking care of,
Nathan:you're gonna have people there who don't know a thing about the other
Nathan:members of the other professions.
Nathan:The other professions.
Nathan:For sure.
Nathan:Yeah, for sure.
Nathan:So that'll be a bit of a challenge for them.
Nathan:Not saying it can't be done and it sh uh, I'm not saying it shouldn't be done.
Nathan:I think the idea of scaling it for economy and then getting rid of the superfluous
Nathan:employees, I mean, I'm sorry, but you had your chance, you had a long time here.
Nathan:And it looks to me like there's a lot of just, I don't know
Nathan:where this money is going.
Nathan:That's, that's a huge concern for me.
Nathan:Yeah.
Nathan:Why are my fees going up?
Nathan:And I don't, there's no changes.
Nathan:I mean, the last thing, uh, the last rumor I heard is that the college
Nathan:fees are going up for pharmacists because they wanna renovate their
Nathan:building because the dentists renovated their building across the way.
Nathan:Mm-hmm.
Nathan:like this kind of stuff.
Nathan:It doesn't build faith, it doesn't build trust.
Nathan:Right.
Nathan:It doesn't.
Corey:And just in the interest of, of fairness, The unions, in my
Corey:opinion, have done the same thing.
Corey:The nurses union has certainly done the same thing.
Corey:They, their, our fees went up when they were building a, a
Corey:splashy building in downtown
Nathan:Vancouver.
Nathan:Yeah.
Nathan:And this is always a problem, isn't it?
Nathan:I very much believe that we are heading towards a situation here
Nathan:where it may be required that all healthcare care professionals come
Nathan:together under one banner and have one union that protects us all.
Nathan:Because the way things are going here, eventually we will have no say in what
Nathan:happens with our professions at all.
Nathan:Mm-hmm.
Nathan:, um, if, you know, if these types of processes become corrupt or become
Nathan:politicized to the point where it's, I mean, it's already not great, right?
Nathan:I mean, it, it's been not great for a while.
Nathan:And it's hard to, it's hard to look at this and be optimistic as far as, uh,
Nathan:you know, when the government talks about streamlining and amalgamating,
Nathan:I think centralization of power, I think bureaucratic inefficiency.
Nathan:And I scratch my head wondering how on earth they're going to, like, they
Nathan:haven't even put a timeline forward yet.
Nathan:They've been working on this five years.
Nathan:Yeah.
Corey:So do you, in, in those things that you think of, do
Corey:you think of accountability?
Corey:Does tighter governance and more governance over a group of bodies,
Corey:does that equal more accountability?
Corey:Are those things mutually exclusive?
Nathan:Well, policing a profession is tricky, right?
Nathan:It's not like policing the public where we've got reams
Nathan:and reams of data to draw from.
Nathan:It's kind of a niche sector, so you need people within that
Nathan:sector who are representative of the profession and are reasonable
Nathan:and do care about public safety.
Nathan:Mm-hmm.
Nathan:. But there also has to be some concern for the livelihood of the, the profession.
Nathan:And that doesn't mean that you have to protect members who are not treating
Nathan:the public well or treating them with the discrimination course, or, or all
Nathan:the crazy things that that happen.
Nathan:Most healthcare professionals, I think, are in this province especially are, are
Nathan:good people who generally want to help.
Nathan:Mm-hmm.
Nathan:, they work very hard and most of them are not paid enough.
Nathan:Uh, nurses, doctors come to mind, you know, even with the, uh, the
Nathan:new contractor getting, or I, I.
Nathan:I don't know if it's gonna be enough, if, I guess it depends on how this is
Nathan:going to be implemented and, and what kind of fairness is gonna be exercised,
Nathan:because I don't, I see a lot of talk about protecting the public, which is great.
Nathan:I want, I, you know, I want my parents to be able to go, uh, and see a doctor
Nathan:in their hometown and, and not have something crazy happen because that doctor
Nathan:is either not qualified or up to some billing scam or, you know, like we have
Nathan:to have, somebody's gotta be watching out and making sure that outliers are, are
Nathan:reprimanded or taken outta the system.
Nathan:That's, that's gotta happen.
Nathan:But if you make the environment so inhospitable for professionals to work,
Nathan:and we've already got a problem with, uh, paperwork in this province as far
Nathan:as, you know, they're, they're trying to rectify that with the, the new physicians
Nathan:deal where they're, they're getting paid for some homework and stuff, but
Nathan:I mean, physicians are smart people.
Nathan:They'll, uh, , they're not, they know what, what they can get elsewhere.
Nathan:And if, if these policies are implemented and it's heavy on the public side and, you
Nathan:know, every single complaint is taking an extra, you know, if, if a public member
Nathan:can go in and complain about their doctor and then that doctor has to write a two
Nathan:hour report to defend themselves when they've done nothing wrong, guess what?
Nathan:Yeah.
Nathan:Your doctor's gone.
Nathan:Yeah.
Nathan:They'll, they'll go to another province or they'll go to the states.
Nathan:Why would they stay here?
Nathan:Right.
Nathan:So, , that's, uh, that's concern I have about whenever you, I mean,
Nathan:we, we've already had a problem with bureaucratic paperwork and
Nathan:this province is rife with red tape.
Nathan:It's way over the top.
Nathan:So if this turns out to be a real streamlining process and it
Nathan:actually does cut through some of that, then kudos to them.
Nathan:I just, I personally don't have a lot of faith when I see a p uh, an amalgamation
Nathan:into a government entity like this.
Nathan:Yeah,
Corey:yeah, I agree.
Corey:It seems like simply a, a transfer of bureaucracy
Nathan:kind of, right?
Nathan:Uh, yeah.
Nathan:That
Corey:we will, that, that the process within the regulatory bodies might be
Corey:smoother this way, but the process to establish the boards, to oversee them,
Corey:that part will still be, still be loaded.
Corey:I.
Corey:I wonder if that will end up just sort of balancing out and we won't see a
Corey:big difference in terms of timelines, in terms of efficiency, unless it's,
Corey:this is usually the case, right?
Corey:Yeah.
Corey:Unless there's a big political shift that could influence it one
Corey:way or another, then I think it could change, change timelines, but
Corey:it might just kind of balance out.
Nathan:It usually is a wash when they do stuff like this.
Nathan:Um, only the, the people at the bottom get a little more taxed, right?
Nathan:Mm-hmm.
Nathan:. So what I would expect to see is within about five years, they've got
Nathan:this implemented, the government is now overseeing these colleges and
Nathan:our fees will somehow be higher.
Nathan:Yeah.
Nathan:You know, , oh yeah.
Nathan:This is, that would be the unsurprising outcome here.
Nathan:But, uh, just to quickly give a summary of what they're trying to accomplish
Nathan:with this new, uh, modernization of the healthcare providers act into the
Nathan:healthcare providers and occupations act.
Nathan:So they're looking to, we've already talked about the amalgamation process.
Nathan:One of the goals will be to streamline that process.
Nathan:So we'll, once we have a timeline for implementation, we'll, we'll keep an
Nathan:eye on that and see how that goes.
Nathan:They want to bring in a new oversight body, and we're gonna put in a
Nathan:sound effect for oversight body.
Nathan:I think ForSight Buddy.
Nathan:. Corey: Yeah,
Nathan:. Nathan: Cause it, uh, yeah, it's, uh,
Nathan:term, but , this is to be, this is where you'll see your fees, by the way.
Nathan:This is what's gonna happen.
Nathan:So this body is to be funded by the colleges.
Nathan:So now the colleges get a taste of what we've been dealing with.
Nathan:Right?
Nathan:Ah-ha.
Nathan:Now the college will get, will pay to be policed, but will the college pay?
Nathan:No.
Nathan:They will shift that money back to us because that's
Nathan:where their money comes from.
Nathan:Without question.
Nathan:Yes.
Nathan:So this new , and there's more so the oversight body, uh, is going
Nathan:to conduct routine audits and regulatory on regulatory colleges.
Nathan:I'm hoping that also includes financial audits because as a member of a col,
Nathan:as a, a healthcare professional, that's, that's a big concern.
Nathan:I wanna know where my money's going.
Nathan:Yeah, I think it'll be more to do with safety and protocols, but you never know.
Nathan:So the oversight body is going to process and investigate complaints about the
Nathan:regulatory college's actions and policies.
Nathan:Now that is probably going to be more from a public point of view.
Nathan:I don't know how involved they'll be with.
Nathan:Professionals complaining about the, uh, regulatory colleges.
Nathan:If there's an avenue for complaints, then I've got about, uh, I've got a
Nathan:backlog log of about 200 . So, um, and I will be sending them all Yeah.
Nathan:, because I, I would, there's things that need to be addressed from mm-hmm.
Nathan:long time ago till now.
Nathan:Mm-hmm.
Nathan:, uh, many, many complaints.
Nathan:So, we'll, we'll see what happens there.
Nathan:And the other thing they did with, they're, they're separating.
Nathan:So normally the college would've taken care of the investigation of a
Nathan:complaint towards a, a professional, and they would've been responsible
Nathan:for the disciplinary action.
Nathan:Right now, now they're separating it.
Nathan:So the college is going to initiate the investigation and the
Nathan:disciplinary side of it was going to be supported by the oversight board.
Nathan:What do you make of that?
Nathan:It's interesting that they think, again, this, this tells me that they
Nathan:think that there's shenanigans going on where the healthcare professional
Nathan:is being protected by the college.
Nathan:You know, it's not the case.
Nathan:, it's not the case.
Nathan:, I mean, maybe, maybe that's happened where a, where somebody had a friend
Nathan:on the board or something like that.
Nathan:I'm sure that's happened in the past, but largely were treated like cattle, right?
Nathan:Mm-hmm.
Nathan:I mean, they, they do the ver the minimum that's required by law that
Nathan:they can get away with, and that's it.
Nathan:So, I, I don't, I'm not entirely sure what they think they're gonna do other
Nathan:than there seems to be concern about, you know, if they're talking about
Nathan:transparency issues and they want somebody who's being investigated, if
Nathan:they want the public to be involved in that investigation, as in they get access
Nathan:to that person's name, credentials, work history, uh, what happened
Nathan:during the event and stuff like that.
Nathan:Then that's gonna be, that'll be a court case, right?
Nathan:Mm-hmm.
Nathan:, I mean, that's a privacy act violation.
Nathan:. Corey: And what, what's
Nathan:gonna be?
Nathan:Well, that's the thing.
Nathan:Yeah.
Nathan:Right.
Nathan:One of the reasons, like, uh, David Eby is, uh, is poor
Nathan:guy's already up for a recall.
Nathan:Mm-hmm.
Nathan:. But, uh, that's one of the concerns that, uh, and of course this
Nathan:recall is politically motivated.
Nathan:It's being headed by a guy who was trying to get elected in the
Nathan:first place, blah, blah, blah.
Nathan:Mm-hmm.
Nathan:. But that guy does have a point, and that this does, if that's the angle
Nathan:they're taking, then you're getting into privacy act issues again, where
Nathan:you gotta remember that everybody is innocent till proven guilty.
Nathan:So, and that should include, you know, people who are being accused of
Nathan:professional conduct issues or whatever it might be for things like that,
Nathan:which are the majority of what the college is gonna face in complaints.
Nathan:I think the, the people involved in that have a right to confidentiality
Nathan:until a decision is made.
Nathan:If it's a, a grievance that is bad enough that it needs to
Nathan:be made public, that's fine.
Nathan:I mean, there should be room for that.
Nathan:But that's a real touchy one as far as, uh, human rights goes, you know?
Corey:Yep, it is.
Corey:And again, this is the whole debate about who are they protecting
Corey:first, the public or the profession.
Corey:Seemingly, when you look on any of these colleges, any of them, if you
Corey:look on their websites, you can see, uh, who's being investigated and
Corey:some details of or, or even more.
Corey:There's some that are quite thorough, unless there's a, a medical
Corey:diagnoses that makes it so that their privacy is, should be maintained.
Corey:It's all on there and it's on there before, at this time.
Corey:It's on there before there's a conclusion that's been reached.
Corey:Unless
Nathan:you have a good lawyer.
Nathan:That's right.
Corey:So to me that says that the, right now, that is the motivation
Corey:of that is to protect the public.
Nathan:Mm-hmm.
Nathan:and not the other way around.
Nathan:Yes.
Nathan:I, I would agree with you there.
Nathan:They're gonna create an independent discipline tribunal that will be the,
Nathan:uh, the entity that, that oversees that.
Nathan:And that'll be, that will be an interesting thing if they do make
Nathan:that more, like, if it becomes more accessible to the public and transparent
Nathan:again, as long as it's within the, the confines of the normal judiciary system.
Nathan:As in, you know, if there's a grievous accusation and there's good evidence
Nathan:to suggest that it's, it's true, then, you know, maybe it can be a
Nathan:little more fleshed out in the public.
Nathan:But
Corey:will that include the nurses, midwives, physicians, and pharmacists?
Corey:Will, will, is that oversee all governing buddies?
Corey:I believe it does, unless that entity that looks at discipline is
Corey:enormous, that will get bogged down so quickly if now all are being funneled
Corey:through the same spot, won't it?
Corey:Like the, looking at the, the, the board who looks after discipline for nurses.
Corey:That board is bogged down.
Corey:That board is, is completely, I think, drowning in complaints and
Corey:in, in, in disciplinary issues.
Corey:And that's part of why, or so they claim, and that's why it takes so long
Corey:too, is that there's a lot of them.
Corey:But if, if they're all going through the same place, I
Corey:imagine that is, uh, traffic jam,
Corey:. Nathan: I, I would see that
Corey:I'm, and again, I, I don't know how, when you say streamline and you're
Corey:talking about reducing the number of people who are working at these
Corey:places and yet somehow getting more productivity out of them, I'm a little
Corey:confused as to h Like it's these, these types of documents always.
Corey:It's like they have all the information there.
Corey:They have the reason why they're making the decisions, but the implement.
Corey:and maintenance of those decisions so that a document like this
Corey:can, can be pragmatic and useful.
Corey:That's the part that I don't see, and I, I guess I, we can hope that when they
Corey:have a timeline, perhaps they'll have, uh, implement, uh, implementation strategy
Corey:so that we can take a look at how they're going to actually regulate this process.
Corey:Right?
Corey:Yeah.
Corey:So we don't have to put a, another level of regulation on the regulators
Corey:who are doing the regulation . Right?
Corey:Yeah.
Corey:So what we could do is, uh, did you have, uh, just a, a kind of
Corey:summary of your pros and cons?
Corey:I can give you that.
Corey:Yep, sure.
Corey:Let's hear what you got.
Corey:So for me, a
Corey:pro, again, we should preface this by saying this is if it is
Corey:implemented and proves to be working as they claim that it will work.
Corey:if it
Nathan:meets its goals.
Nathan:So we're, we're giving it the benefit of the doubt
Corey:for the sake of the exercise.
Corey:We'll give it the benefit of the, of the doubt.
Corey:Yeah.
Corey:Uh, that said, we will also highlight some concerns, but if it meets its goals, then
Corey:the idea of more transparency Absolutely.
Corey:A pro for me.
Corey:Agreed.
Corey:I'll, I'll hand it back to you.
Corey:What would be your first
Nathan:pro?
Nathan:Well, I've said it for years.
Nathan:The colleges need to be policed.
Nathan:They need to be audited, they need to be held accountable.
Nathan:I can't believe that we've went this long, allowing these entities to
Nathan:function the way they have with the misappropriation of power and funds.
Nathan:And it just, it, it's strange to me because other countries generally have
Nathan:some kind of a structure in place to, to allow for self-governance, but to alway
Nathan:also kind of keep an eye on it and make sure that things don't get outta hand.
Nathan:And we haven't had that.
Nathan:So if this is implemented properly, it's a no-brainer.
Nathan:It should have been done a long time ago.
Nathan:Yeah.
Nathan:. Corey: I think another pro
Nathan:balance within these boards.
Nathan:Personally, I, I don't think it's a bad idea to say, to say, we're gonna
Nathan:pay the public members the same as what the, the private members are
Nathan:who sit on these, on these boards.
Nathan:That's the pro there.
Nathan:The con there to me is that these boards will be entirely
Nathan:appointed by the government.
Nathan:Yeah.
Nathan:That doesn't make sense to me.
Nathan:No.
Nathan:I think, and it not only is, does it not make sense, but it is just
Nathan:setting up for potentially being
Nathan:abused and misused.
Nathan:Yeah.
Nathan:And politicized further, like you said.
Nathan:Yeah.
Nathan:This country is heading towards a pendulum swing here of epic proportions, and if
Nathan:that means that all of a sudden bcs.
Nathan:Back under blue governance . Then there will be significant, I could
Nathan:imagine, like you said, significant changes to this very quickly.
Nathan:But yeah, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.
Nathan:I guess the other thing I like here is just.
Nathan:It's personally very satisfying to me.
Nathan:And, uh, it makes me not a very good person.
Nathan:It's, uh, it's a terrible thing to say , but I love that the colleges
Nathan:are going, they're going to get a, a taste of their own medicine.
Nathan:Yeah.
Nathan:And I have to take these, these small delicious victories.
Nathan:Even if they might be, they might turn out to be just as, uh, crazy.
Nathan:And I think at, at least, at the very least, they're gonna be subject to the
Nathan:same ambiguous, non-existent guidelines where they're gonna be expected to follow
Nathan:rules that they can't find, you know, and then be reprimanded when they don't.
Nathan:I, I could see that happening very easily and, uh, I will
Nathan:not lose any sleep over that.
Nathan:No, we'll put it that way.
Nathan:No.
Nathan:I
Corey:think some, a pro would be some reorganization of some
Corey:of these smaller colleges might.
Corey:I could see, and, and to be honest with you, I'm kind of like naive about
Corey:what the, what the college of, of like naturopathic medicine and Chinese medicine
Corey:and massage therapy and stuff like that.
Corey:Like that's out of my, my realm.
Corey:Mm-hmm.
Corey:. But to me, I could see restructuring that as making some sense if they're,
Corey:if these boards are that small, if the regulatory bodies are that small, which
Corey:presumably they are, I think a con is that they have probably, for a variety
Corey:of reasons, not wanted to touch the, the doctors, the nurses, and the pharmacists.
Corey:And so you're leaving three pretty muscular entities there and will that
Corey:in fact create more of a, an imbalance between those three and all of the rest.
Corey:I think that imbalance was probably already there, but
Corey:will this perpetuate that?
Corey:I wonder?
Nathan:Yeah.
Nathan:I wonder too, the only upside of that is, like I said, economy of scale.
Nathan:I mean, if those guys are paying, um, uh, who's, somebody gets really shafted.
Nathan:There's a, I can't remember which one it is.
Nathan:It might be, there's some little college that pays a crazy high.
Nathan:It's like $2,400 a year, something fees.
Nathan:They should see a reduction.
Nathan:Wow.
Nathan:Yeah.
Nathan:It's, it's wild.
Nathan:And they only have like a few members, right?
Nathan:Mm-hmm.
Nathan:. So those ones that are being amalgamated, if you are a member of those colleges,
Nathan:uh, or being regulated by them, I would expect to see some reductions in fees.
Nathan:So watch for that and let us know if you don't, because if there's no
Nathan:economy of scale, then I, I don't know how that's gonna be more efficient
Nathan:for anybody, but, but we'll see.
Nathan:There's more to be, uh, learned here.
Corey:Yeah.
Corey:Again, as we have talked about so many times on this podcast that.
Corey:. There's such inconsistency with the disciplinary process that
Corey:individuals that you and I know, including myself, get handled one way.
Corey:The next person gets handled a different way.
Corey:The next person gets a whole other set of rules applied.
Corey:The next person hasn't heard back . Mm-hmm.
Corey:and and so on and so on and so on.
Corey:So for everyone to go through a more centralized, for lack of a better word,
Corey:disciplinary panel, there might be some consistency that's created there.
Nathan:Yes.
Nathan:We should all be screwed equally.
Corey:the, well, this is right.
Corey:The con of that is that A will be potentially a bottleneck.
Corey:It may actually take MO more time, and B, depending on the political will now,
Corey:that these boards will be influenced by, directly by politics, that there will be.
Corey:equal screwing or some un , a lack of fairness or, um, an influence of an
Corey:anti-drug mindset, et cetera, et cetera.
Corey:There's just an endless list of, of things that could go wrong with that.
Corey:Mm-hmm.
Corey:, but it could also create some consistency.
Nathan:It could, yeah.
Nathan:Uh, and that's what we would, we would hope to see if we could
Nathan:get a little more consistency.
Nathan:I think the biggest thing is time.
Nathan:Right.
Nathan:If we could get, I mean, if you rob a bank, you have a Right
Nathan:to a fair and timely trial.
Nathan:Right?
Nathan:Right.
Nathan:So, you know, I mean, there has to be some kind of, there has to be some
Nathan:kind of standards that are set and met as far as timelines are concerned.
Nathan:And I think, I mean, if they could make that better, just that
Nathan:alone would really help healthcare professionals who are dealing with,
Nathan:uh, substance use, uh, use issues.
Nathan:Yeah.
Nathan:Generally speaking, the amalgamation of power, especially into government bodies,
Nathan:is, in my opinion, an overall negative.
Nathan:Uh, I'm always leery of centralization, and this is no exception.
Nathan:Mm-hmm.
Nathan:, but giving it the, uh, the benefit of the doubt.
Nathan:We'll, we'll see.
Nathan:I believe the transition will take years.
Nathan:Like, uh, they could set a date two years maybe as a target.
Nathan:Mm-hmm.
Nathan:and, uh, I, yeah, we'll, we'll see.
Nathan:I'm not sure what the transition stage will look like as far as how
Nathan:professions are dealing with their day-to-day on the ground level.
Nathan:Mm-hmm.
Nathan:is there going to be, now they're saying up until the implementation
Nathan:date, the old Health Professions Act will be in place and the
Nathan:colleges will be business as usual.
Nathan:But I can't see that really being the case if, you know, you've got
Nathan:half your staff that knows are getting relieved of their duties.
Nathan:I, I was just gonna say that you're gonna see, uh, uh, there'll be a
Nathan:transition period of probably fairly extreme flux where I would expect.
Nathan:all momentum to nearly come to a e either a stop or a crawl, right?
Nathan:Yeah.
Nathan:Until the next group of whatever this is gonna be, takes over.
Nathan:So that's something to, that I'm a little leery of.
Nathan:And, uh, I'll be keeping a, an eye on.
Nathan:I just hope that they keep healthcare professionals in mind here.
Corey:Mm-hmm.
Corey:, I, I also wonder about morale, like just the, the timing of this change
Corey:that is loaded with concern, loaded with conversation, with argument.
Corey:You would think that in some of these professions, the overall
Corey:morale will, will be impacted
Nathan:by this.
Nathan:Yes.
Nathan:Absolutely.
Corey:At a time where it's, where it's pretty tough to be a healthcare worker.
Nathan:Absolutely.
Nathan:I don't think there's been a tougher time than No, no.
Nathan:And has government, has faith in the government ever been lower?
Nathan:Probably not.
Nathan:Probably not.
Nathan:So they're asking for a large scale grain salt here.
Nathan:Yeah.
Nathan:, you know?
Nathan:Yeah.
Nathan:And we'll see.
Nathan:I think in theory this is a, a bill that has a potential to
Nathan:make things better for everyone.
Nathan:Yeah.
Nathan:Except the, it'll probably make things worse for the colleges, but
Nathan:they brought that on themselves.
Nathan:Sure.
Nathan:So, and the
Corey:other part, you know, just for our listeners, this is
Corey:a, what, a 272 page document?
Corey:Something like that.
Corey:Like
Nathan:it's a monster Bill itself.
Nathan:Yeah.
Nathan:It is huge.
Nathan:And, uh, yeah, it's, I mean, they passed it in like just a little over a month.
Nathan:So, does anyone read these things?
Nathan:? I was just
Corey:gonna say, you and I, you and I were focused on,
Corey:just on this specific issue.
Corey:There's more to the bill than just stuff with the colleges, but, and a
Corey:lot of people's concerns is also around the potential for privatization, which
Corey:is a, a whole separate episode maybe.
Corey:Mm-hmm.
Corey:. Um, but yeah, just to think about having to sit down and read all 272
Corey:pages and then like, make sense of it and feel comfortable and confident
Corey:with the material and, and then vote
Nathan:on it.
Nathan:I.
Nathan:, you know what I was thinking would be a good thing.
Nathan:This would be a good Jo, uh, job for, uh, chatbot, right?
Nathan:Get chat g p t in here and say, chatbot, read this 237 page document
Nathan:cuz it's, it's written in legalese.
Nathan:Right?
Nathan:Translate it to English and summarize it in one page, please.
Nathan:Yeah.
Nathan:. Corey: You know what I mean?
Nathan:Great
Nathan:idea.
Nathan:Yeah.
Nathan:Maybe chat bot can help us here.
Nathan:chat bot if you're listening, get to work.
Nathan:. I think we can leave it there.
Nathan:Corey, what do you Yeah,
Corey:I think so too.
Corey:I mean, we've, um, covered a lot here.
Corey:Mm-hmm.
Corey:picking up quite a bit of time and, uh, and there's just, there's, we could
Corey:break it down for a long time and I think a lot of it has to be left to
Nathan:we'll see.
Nathan:Yeah.
Nathan:And I re I realize this is a little bit out of our, our normal wheelhouse
Nathan:as far as, you know, this is much more into regulatory affairs than we get.
Nathan:But we both thought it was important to cover this because the impact.
Nathan:will eventually be felt at the level of the, the individual
Nathan:who's stuck in the machine.
Nathan:So that's why it's important for us to keep track of these
Corey:things.
Corey:Oh yeah.
Corey:We, you and I have been, have been critical of regulatory bodies since
Corey:we started this and before, and uh, this is the first time we've seen
Corey:it actually moved into legislation.
Corey:So
Nathan:it's, it's big.
Nathan:It is.
Nathan:Yeah.
Nathan:So we'll see what happens.
Nathan:Yeah.
Nathan:That's all we got.
Nathan:Thanks for your input, co-host Corey, and, uh, you as well.
Nathan:Of course.
Nathan:We will see everybody next time.
Nathan:Yep.