Professional Association of Residents of Ontario (PARO)

Dear CPSO Policy Department,

Thank you for the invitation to provide feedback on the CPSO Public Health Emergencies policy draft. 

We have reviewed the document and have one suggestion that the College may want to consider:

• That the policy should explicitly recognize that, in some health emergencies, there may be different expectations of service provision for physicians who are immunocompromised. 

We once again appreciate being included in the CPSO's consultative process.

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Hello,

As a mature member of the public, living in [redacted], I am commenting briefly on this policy.

The table lists several examples of potential emergencies.

One that is emerging and not in the table is regarding our digital records.

On a sunny July morning in 2022, my residential Bell services were intact however an extensive Rogers outage occurred.

That morning my appointment with my doctor was related to a recent hematology consultation and an oral surgeon request before my planned procedure, we had no access and relief on our memories and a couple of printed documents.  We were able to complete the appointment.

That is a minor example of the consequence of our reliance on digital records.

Much bigger and consequential examples to prepare for might be the previous Windsor region hospitals that were compromised - affecting surgery, cancer care, medical investigations and much more.

The CPSO, OMA, doctors offices must consider options to avoid or to minimize potential for future outages.

Thank you for considering this message.

Hi there,

I just wanted to offer some feedback on the draft PHE policy and advice document, specifically to suggest

• I recommend outlining / highlighting that many physicians might engage in speculation / providing advise and recommendations through social media channels and that in my view, this should be discouraged, especially if it confuses messaging, amplifies misinformation/disinformation, and detracts from official public health channels

• In view of the above, I would recommend explicitly linking expectations in Public Health Emergencies to your Social Media policy, making it clear that the latter also particularly applies during a Social Media policy, and finally

• Highlighting under scope of practice that, failing formal training, that physicians might reconsider engagement with media traditional and social as it would not fall under their scope of practice (in the way that it does fall into scope of training and practice for public health and preventive medicine.)

Thanks for the chance to share these thoughts and also for the broadly comprehensive policy otherwise!