Pharmacists, dietitians to gain greater powers

Health professionals such as pharmacists, dietitians and midwives will gain greater powers under proposed legislation to be unveiled today.
Physiotherapists able to order x-rays, midwives who can put a breathing tube in the mouth of a struggling newborn, and, pharmacists able to refill prescriptions without first checking with a doctor could soon be commonplace in Ontario if the legislation passes.
Nurse practitioners will be able to order bone density tests and scans such as MRIs, set or cast a fracture or dislocation of a joint and apply specific forms of energy such as diagnostic ultrasounds.
The scope of practice changes are part of a Liberal government initiative to ease long wait times in doctors offices and hospitals and to improve patient access to healthcare, Premier Dalton McGuinty told reporters this morning.
But Ontario's nurses say the changes stop short of doing what's truly needed to ease patient flow in overcrowded hospitals by failing to give them the power to prescribe more drugs and to admit or discharge patients.
"No one professional can possibly meet all a patients needs," said McGuinty. "The next best thing is to ensure we minimize the number of stops a patient makes while travelling through the healthcare system."
Under the proposed changes, McGuinty said regulated health professionals will get enhanced power to do more for patients. Dietitians could prick skin to check a patient's blood levels for diabetes control, midwives would be able to tell patients their diagnosis, and, medical radiation technologists could, on the order of a doctor, give needles if needed.
But while the provincial government repeatedly claims they are moving to improve access to medical care, they continue to deny nurse practitioners the ability to prescribe a variety of drugs, said Doris Grinspun, the Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario's executive director. Nurse practitioners have more education and training than registered nurses. In other provinces and countries they have greater prescribing practices, said Doris Grinspun, the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario's executive direction. "Still we are needing to fight, in committee now, for open prescribing," Grinspun said, adding she hopes the proposed legislation can be amended at the committee stage before it is passed into law.