03/05/2022
Hello friends
Our beloved medicine is under attack as the Ford government announced this week its plans to DEREGULATE Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine in Ontario!
This would will leave you, the public unprotected and unsafe, as any one could then hang up a shingle and call themselves an acupuncturist. It would remove your benefits coverage for Acupuncture. This was all done secretly without warning or consultation and wreaks of political interference. Deregulating our medicine would essentially decimate the legitimacy of our profession that has worked for decades to be recognized as Regulated Health Profession in Ontario.
We are in complete shock. We ask for your help in raising awareness of this shortsighted and unjust move by the Ford government.
Here is a letter I wrote to our MPP MR Ted Arnott this morning:
In Ontario there are over 3,000 practitioners of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) which includes acupuncture. I am one of those practitioners and I am deeply concerned about the negative impacts that schedule 5 of Bill 88 will have on my livelihood and to those under my care.
The bill calls for deregulation of our profession and the wind down of the regulatory college that governs our discipline(s) in Ontario. The rationale for deregulation is nowhere disclosed within the bill nor are the effects of the bill contemplated.
In summary, deregulation of our profession, which has been in good standing since 2006, will result in many practitioners closing their clinics, and, considering every TCM practitioner has an active list of between 100 and 300 patients, upward of 900,000 people may no longer be able 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.
As clinics close across the province, staff and service providers to those clinics will also lose their livelihoods and the direct and indirect job loss is likely to be in the thousands. It is also noteworthy that 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 – a sadly ironic twist to a bill that was to create and enhance employment.
Given there has been NO consultation on the matter of deregulation and the severe implications of Schedule 5 of Bill 88, I respectfully request that the section be removed from the bill prior to any further reading or committee deliberation and, further, 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.
Yours sincerely,
Carolyn and the Dew Wellness Team
