Wednesday, May 26, 2004

Bill 31, Personal Health Information Protection Act, 2004

For residents of Ontario; Bill 31, Personal Health Information Protection Act, 2004, has received Royal assent and the offices of the Information and Privacy Commissioner may be able to assist in the retrieval of records from units such as hospitals.

Hospitals and similar organizations have not previously come under the Commissioner’s jurisdiction.

The Information and Privacy Commissioner may appoint an Assistant Commissioner for Personal Health Information to facilitate the processing of requests based on the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.

Note that this change does not come into effect until November 1, 2004.

Click here for a PDF copy of the bill, or click here (select 31 in the index) for the index history of the act.


Click here to get an idea of what you should expect
to accomplish if you try this new procedure.
No Virginia,
Santa does not exist!


"Written laws are like spider's webs;
they will catch, it is true, the weak and the poor,
but would be torn in pieces by the rich and powerful."
(Anacharsis--Scythian Philosopher...600 B.C.)

Tuesday, May 25, 2004

An interesting article in today’s Canadian Medical Association Journal, “Health care as a risk factor”. Gives one pause to reconsider the implications of “(un)informed consent” doesn’t it?

Interpreting material from the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CAMJ) one could expect that there would be 39 deaths, per day, from adverse events (AE) in Ontario’s hospitals. Further interpretation of the study indicates that 15 of theses deaths, per day, are potentially preventable.
Is the apparent past lack of concern by the government and the self regulating professions an indication of the value these units place on the lives of their citizens?

Are these articles in the Medical Post and the British Medical Journal (BMJ) accurate indicators of the lack of respect that the, Ontario, medical community has for its clients? ie. The Medical Post, “ Med students encouraged to act unethically (article has been deleted)” and the BMJ, “Understanding the clinical dilemmas that shape medical students' ethical development”.

Monday, May 24, 2004

Medical errors in Canadian hospitals lead to 9000 – 24,000 deaths every year

In Ontario, as much as one unnecessary death per hour, because of errors?

Tuesday, May 18, 2004

'We all kill a few patients as we learn'
Everybody makes mistakes at work
but what if you're a doctor and you ruin a patient's life
or even end it?

You don't blow the whistle on colleagues and they don't on you

Wednesday, May 12, 2004

Records apparently never disappeared.
While one (simple minded ones) would think that, sensitive, definitive statements would normally be based on written records, it can apparently be claimed that this is not the case.
Records obviously cannot be produced if the statements were only based as a result of unrecorded conversations.
It’s your word against ours.
You can’t fight “city hall’ I guess.
My confidence in justice and democracy has been restored!
Simple minded?

Tuesday, May 11, 2004

Tomorrow, May 12, MOH will explain why important records have disappeared, maybe.

The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario characterized less than truthful or accurate statements by its members’ as follows; "It is inevitable that when a number of health professionals are dealing with complicated problems that certain inconsistencies will arise in the recording of events, and these inconsistencies may give rise to concern on the part of family members. It is not the responsibility of the committee to explain each of these inconsistencies to the satisfaction of the complainant,".
Has this dubious ethical and moral standard relating to truth been adapted by the Ministry of Health?

I'll find out tomorrow, maybe.

Doctors have no duty to give, as a result of their negligence, a truthful account of the circumstances of a death, nor even to refrain from deliberately falsifying records?‽
Is this believable?‽
It seemed too farfetched to be believable until I looked at the European Court of Human Rights decision.
"Whilst it was arguable that doctors had a duty not to falsify medical records under the common law (Sir Donaldson MR’s “duty of candour”), before Powell v Boladz there was no binding decision of the courts as to the existence of such a duty. As the law stands now, however, doctors have no duty to give the parents of a child who died as a result of their negligence a truthful account of the circumstances of the death, nor even to refrain from deliberately falsifying records."


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