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Hello, My name is [redacted], a [redacted] PA student at [redacted]. As someone who is passionate about the profession and advocating for it, I am concerned about the proposed changes specifically in relation to the Physician Assistant profession.Clarifying the "anticipated" physician relationship to include a mandatory clinical assessment by the physician within 48 hours (for the first patient encounter), would mean that PAs could not work in many outpatient settings such as the emergency room, walk-in clinic or telemedicine. While we understand that physician oversight is essential to the PA-physician relationship, this change would make the PA's role in these settings redundant. Additionally, the clarification that assessments must be done by the physician directly to bill for OHIP would also significantly impact PA's who work in outpatient settings where the physician bills for their consults and uses that income to supplement the PA's salary. I can see this being a large barrier to job opportunities and PA accessibility for physicians. I understand that these delegation policies are applicable to all allied health professionals and because of that, they should be specific although these changes significantly hinder the PA profession and the physician-PA relationship. Not only on the PA side of things, reducing PA scope with the above changes will negatively impact patient wait times, satisfaction and physician mental health, further exacerbating the stress the Canadian healthcare system is under. A solution to this could be to have a separate delegation policy specific for PA's that does not restrict their ability to provide care and maintain the current physician-PA relationship. I know the CPSO recently spent alot of time and money to have PA's regulated although these changes do not seem to align with this and in a sense nullify the large strides that regulation of PA's in Ontario represented.I appreciate you taking the time to read this feedback. Kindly, [redacted]
