Keep Acupuncture Safe in Ontario

Ontarians need access to more healthcare, not less!

 

This Bill will eliminate the practices of Registered Acupuncturists and Registered Traditional Chinese Medicine Practitioners across Ontario.

 

Buried within Bill 88, a schedule seeks to dissolve our profession's oversight and governing body, the College of Traditional Chinese Medicine Practitioners & Acupuncturists of Ontario (CTCMPAO) and de-regulate the practices of TCM and acupuncture.

What can you do?
 
Donate to support the Coalition! The Coalition to Stop the Repeal of the TCM Act is a large group of practitioners, professional associations and schools across Ontario, working together to maintain the status of the profession in Ontario and to continue to serve the patients of Ontario.

Why is this an important issue that desperately needs your support?

 

Deregulation of our profession, which has been in good standing since 2006, will result in many practitioners closing their clinics. Considering that every TCM practitioner has an active list of between 100 and 300 patients, upward of 800,000 Ontarians may no longer be able to receive their healthcare of choice.

 

The gap in healthcare services will cause unconscionable harm to many patients, and their needs are unlikely to be filled by a healthcare system that is already severely overwhelmed and at risk of failing.

 

Regulation, registration and the CTCMPAO are in place to ensure the safety and protection of the general public, the very people we serve as Regulated Health Care Practitioners.

 

What does dissolving the governing body of TCM really mean?

 

Removal of the required minimum competency standards for the practice of acupuncture and TCM will negatively impact the public's access to safe, competent and professional health care services.

 

Removal of registration and oversight of practitioners puts the Ontario public at risk. Practitioners who have in the past harmed patients and been banned from the profession will now be free to practice again.

 

Removal also means there are no longer Standards of Practice or an Ethics framework that can be relied on by patients to expect professional, competent, accurate and fair services.

 

What does this mean for my TCM practitioner?

 

As clinics close, staff and service providers to those clinics will lose their livelihoods and the direct and indirect job loss is likely to be in the thousands across the province.

 

The deregulation process will quite likely mean that qualified practitioners will no longer have their Ontario accreditation honored in other jurisdictions, leaving them without employment mobility or choice of profession.

 

What are the next steps?

 

Given there has been NO consultation on the matter of deregulation and the severe implications of Schedule 5 of Bill 88, we are asking that it be removed from the bill, and that the government cease any further action on deregulation until such time as thorough consultation can be completed and a rationalized approach developed to address any issues that may be related to the TCM regulatory college.

 

 

#saveacuON