Public representation is vital to the College Board’s ability to function, and to make decisions that reflect the public’s best interests. The College Board relies on its public members to bring unique and valuable insights and oversight in order to help us maintain a well-rounded, comprehensive decision-making process.
Public members are appointed by the Minister of Health and, as required by the Health Professions Act, must not comprise less than one-third of the total Board membership.
As public members of the Board of the College of Pharmacists of British Columbia, we represent the perspective of all British Columbians in the governance of pharmacy practice in BC.
2019 brought with it a number of significant changes to pharmacy regulation in BC. In November, Minister of Health, Adrian Dix, announced proposed changes to the regulation of BC’s health professions, with a focus on increasing transparency and patient safety. Many of the proposals in the consultation paper resonated with us as a high performing college, and we look forward to working with the Ministry and other health colleges to further improve patient safety, as well as public trust in regulation.
Trust and transparency are vital to our efforts as a regulator, and we are pleased with the progress we have made on both of these fronts over the past year. We continue to live stream every Board Meeting through the College’s Periscope Channel, and publish highlights and minutes immediately after every meeting.
This past year, we’ve also started publishing citations and Discipline Hearing Notifications as individual items in the ‘News’ section, as well as the homepage, of the College website. This was done to further enhance transparency by ensuring greater access to information. As representatives of the public, we continue to be encouraged by the efforts of both the College Board and staff in continuing to push for greater public safety measures within pharmacy practice. Notably, we are pleased with the implementation of a new Patient Relations Program Standard to help provide clearer standards and requirements for dealing with misconduct of a sexual nature. Having a standard in place enhances our regulatory safeguards, helping to build and maintain patient trust in pharmacy care.
Finally, we’d like to acknowledge and thank those who took the time to participate in the College’s various engagement initiatives over the past year. We received over 700 responses to our annual Customer Satisfaction Survey and over 7000 to our Strategic Plan survey. The feedback given by members of the public, as well as registrants and stakeholders played an immeasurable role in the development of our new strategic plan.
We greatly value your voice and your willingness to reach out to us. Your diverse opinions enable us to continue to strengthen the symbiotic relationship between our pharmacy professionals and the patients they serve. And this relationship remains at the core of our work as a health regulator.
There is of course much more work to be done in order to achieve the goals that the Board has set for itself. However, with its long history as a leader in Canadian health regulation, the College is well-positioned to continue to improve the health and safety of British Columbians through excellence in pharmacy practice.
As the current public representatives, we are honored to share this ambition with, and be a part of, such a progressive, dedicated and focused Board.
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| Tracey Hagkull Government Appointee |
Anne Peterson Government Appointee |
Katie Skelton Government Appointee |
Justin Singh Thind Government Appointee |
