A key priority for the College of Health and Care Professionals of BC is to prepare for a change in the legislation that sets out how BC’s health professionals are regulated.
The current Health Professions Act (HPA) will be replaced by the new Health Professions and Occupations Act (HPOA) that received Royal Assent in 2022 and is expected to be brought into force in 2025.
The HPOA will result in some key changes that support the following themes:
- A commitment to cultural safety and humility, with new requirements for regulators and health professionals.
- Improved governance, including structural and process changes to governance and regulatory oversight, such as board appointments instead of elections.
- Strengthening oversight of regulatory colleges through the creation of the Office of the Superintendent of Health Profession and Occupation Oversight.
- A safer complaints and adjudication process, including new structures and processes for complaints and discipline (tribunal) and greater transparency.
- Better information sharing to improve patient safety and public trust.
The HPOA also includes a set of guiding principles that regulators must adhere to in everything we do:
- Protect the public from harm and discrimination.
- Support and promote awareness of reconciliation with Indigenous peoples and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).
- Address racism and anti-racism issues that are specific to Indigenous peoples.
- Take and promote anti-discrimination measures.
- Act in a fair manner, including by demonstrating respect for the principles of procedural fairness.
- Respect privacy.
There are additional principles regulators must uphold, including collaboration between regulators and health care providers, removal of barriers for extra-jurisdictional practitioners, and providing opportunities for meaningful public engagement.
The transition to the HPOA will also have implications for the health professionals we regulate. One of the most significant is around the duties they are required to uphold.
- Under the current Health Professions Act, regulated health professionals have a duty to report another registrant/licensee regarding danger to the public, hospitalization or sexual misconduct.
- Under the incoming Health Professions and Occupations Act, regulated health professionals will have duties with respect to reporting, compliance, fitness to practise, ethical practice, misconduct, delegation, cooperation, giving notice, and providing information.
The expanded list of duties is intended to give regulatory colleges more tools to regulate in the public interest, allowing for efficiencies and to act more quickly.
On a more technical level, the incoming legislation calls for a change to regulatory language: all regulated health professionals will be referred to as “licencees” rather than “registrants.”
We do not yet know the date when the government will bring the Health Professions and Occupations Act into force. However, transition planning is underway, and a number of our staff are contributing to the workstreams that are required support the various regulatory changes that will be needed.
In the meantime, we will continue to collaborate with the Ministry of Health as well as the other five health regulatory colleges in BC that will also be making this important transition. In the coming weeks and months you can expect to hear more about other aspects of the HPOA and what it means for health professionals and the public.
Dianne Millette
Registrar and Chief Executive Officer
College of Health and Care Professionals of BC
About the Health Professions and Occupations Act
Learn more about the new legislation at the following links:
