Oral Reprimands
Jun 2006 Council Report
Jul/Aug 2006 Pharmacy Connection

The College's mandate is to protect the public's interest. One of the underlining principles in the Regulated Health Professions Act is that the colleges carry out their public interest mandate with procedures that are open and transparent. The current trend in professional regulation lies in increasing transparency and opening accountability for administrative decision-making. Accordingly, there is a shift in making information about proceedings public, unless there is reason to keep that information private.

Following considerable debate on the issue of the administration of oral reprimands by the Discipline Committee in February, 2006, and subsequently at the Council meeting June, Council members voted in favour of panel reprimands being administered in public. Council considers that administering public reprimands reflects both an openness of proceedings and accountability, and upholds the College's mandate to protect the public's interest.
This practice will be implemented November 1, 2006 and each member facing disciplinary proceedings will be alerted to this practice in advance. In addition, suitable guidelines are being developed for publicly-held reprimands. Panels will be carefully prepared. It should be noted that a policy to administer public reprimands does not preclude a panel from exercising its discretion to administer a reprimand in private, in certain cases, (i.e., grounds for holding a private hearing, as prescribed in the Code, would also apply to this administration of reprimands.