Legislation

Health Professions Act (HPA)

The Health Professions Act is a blanket legislation covering all 28 Regulated Health Professions in Alberta. The process of designing new legislation began in 1995 with open forum meetings with all health professions, educational institutions and the general public. After much argument and discussion the government settled on restricted activities to define those activities that had a risk of harm of a level that must be more closely regulated. This list was very tight and the final list includes only 18 restricted activities as follows.

 
Restricted activities
2(1) The following, carried out in relation to or as part of providing a health service, are restricted activities:
 
(a) to cut a body tissue, to administer anything by an invasive procedure on body tissue or to perform surgical or other invasive
procedures on body tissue
(i) below the dermis or the mucous membrane or in or below the surface of the cornea;(
(ii) ii) in or below the surface of teeth, including scaling of teeth;
(b) to insert or remove instruments, devices, fingers or hands
(i) beyond the cartilaginous portion of the ear canal,
(ii) beyond the point in the nasal passages where they normally narrow,
(iii) beyond the pharynx,
(iv) beyond the opening of the urethra,
(v) beyond the labia majora,
(vi) beyond the anal verge, or
(vii) into an artificial opening into the body;
(c) to set or reset a fracture of a bone;
(d) to reduce a dislocation of a joint except for a partial dislocation of the joints of the fingers and toes;
(e) to use a deliberate, brief, fast thrust to move the joints of the spine beyond the normal range but within the anatomical range of motion, which generally results in an audible click or pop;
(f) to prescribe a Schedule 1 drug within the meaning of the Pharmaceutical Profession Act;
(g) to dispense, compound, provide for selling or sell a Schedule 1 drug or Schedule 2 drug within the meaning of the Pharmaceutical Profession Act;
(h) to prescribe, dispense, compound or administer a vaccine or parenteral nutrition;
(i) to prescribe, compound or administer blood or blood products;
(j) to prescribe or administer diagnostic imaging contrast agents;
(k) to prescribe or administer anaesthetic gases, including nitrous oxide, for the purposes of anaesthesia or sedation;
(l) to prescribe or administer radio pharmaceuticals,
radiolabelled substances, radioactive gases or radio aerosols;
(m) to order or apply any form of ionizing radiation in
(i) medical radiography,
(ii) nuclear medicine, or
(iii) radiation therapy;
(n) to order or apply non-ionizing radiation in
(i) lithotripsy,
(ii) magnetic resonance imaging, or
(iii) ultrasound imaging, including any application of ultrasound to a fetus;
(o) to prescribe or fit
(i) an orthodontic or periodontal appliance,
(ii) a fixed or removable partial or complete denture, or
(iii) an implant supported prosthesis;
(p) to perform a psychosocial intervention with an expectation of treating a substantial disorder of thought, mood, perception, orientation or memory that grossly impairs
(i) judgment,
(ii) behaviour,
(iii) capacity to recognize reality, or
 (iv) ability to meet the ordinary demands of life;
(q) to manage labour or deliver a baby;
(r) to prescribe or dispense corrective lenses.
 
(2) Despite subsection (1), the following are not restricted activities:
(a) activities of daily living, whether performed by the individual or by a surrogate on the individual's behalf,
(b) giving information and providing advice with the intent of enhancing personal development, providing emotional support or promoting spiritual growth of individuals, couples, families and groups, and
(c) drawing venous blood.
 

As you can see prescribing and dispensing of Ophthalmic Appliances don’t rank as high as some of the others. What a restricted activity means is that only a member of a Regulated Health Profession who has it in their scope of practice may perform it. As it stands only Ophthalmologists and Optometrists may refract and only Ophthalmologists, Optometrists and Opticians may dispense.

The Health Professions Act itself has already been passed. Health Professions begin to come under it once their regulations go through. Opticians along with some 17 other health professions submitted drafts of their regulations to the government at the same time last year. As you can guess this has caused a bottleneck for the Government. To date December 2000 only three Health Professions have had their regulations circulated for comment. That means no Health Profession is governed by the Act yet.

Opticians are way down at the bottom of the list to have regulations reviewed because we have asked for an increase in scope of practice to include dispensing. This requires investigation from the Health Professions Advisory Board, which has not yet been formed. We began with this request before the Health Professions Act was begun but it has been held up repeatedly for various political reasons.

If you wish to see the Health Professions Act in its entirety you may go to the government web site at www.gov.ab.ca Then select Laws and Publications, Alberta Legislation, Statutes of Alberta, Health Professions Act. At the end of the act all the Health Professions have a specific part. These are listed in alphabetical order.