Legislation Review Committee

Mandate

To provide recommendations to the Board and the Registrar on matters relating to pharmacy legislation and policy review.

Membership

Justin Thind (Chair)
Andrea Silver (Vice-Chair)
Christine Paramonczyk (staff resource)
Bal Dhillion
Claire Ishoy

Number of Meetings: 4

Accomplishments of the Year

• Over the past year, the Legislation Review Committee recommended the following changes to policy, bylaws, fees, and Standards of Practice¹:

Legislation	Amendments
Health Professions Act (HPA) Bylaws	March 2020 Approval to amend the Standards of Practice regarding verbal orders. Approval to file fee schedule amendments with the Minister of Health. August 2020 Approval to extend an implementation plan to adopt the Model Standards for Pharmacy Compounding of Non-hazardous Sterile Preparations and the Model Standards for Pharmacy Compounding of Hazardous Sterile Preparations from May 2021 to July 2022, due to the COVID-19 emergency. January 2021 Approval to post bylaw amendments regarding temporary registration under a declared emergency for public comment. Approval to file bylaw amendments regarding temporary registration under a declared emergency with the Minister of Health. Approval to post bylaw amendments in Schedule “C” to recognize PharmAchieve’s Drug Administration Course for public comment.
Pharmacy Operations and Drug Scheduling Act (PODSA) Bylaws	March 2020 Approval to file fee schedule amendments with the Minister of Health. January 2021 Approval to file fee schedule amendments with the Minister of Health.
Professional Practice Policies (PPP)	March 2020 Approval to amend PPP-54 Identifying Patients and Patient Representatives in Community Pharmacy and Telepharmacy Settings. Approval to amend PPP-59 Pharmacy Equipment. October 2020 Approval to amend the training deadline included in PPP-66 Opioid Agonist Treatment.
Drug Schedules Regulation (DSR)	August 2020 Approval of a framework to remove natural health products from the Drug Schedules Regulation.

¹ Please note that this annual report only includes amendments that obtained LRC approval. In 2020, due to need to address the COVID-19 epidemic in an expedited fashion, there were multiple bylaw and policy amendments that proceeded for Board approval without first being approved by the LRC. That process was enabled by the following March 2020 Board decision: “Approve all legislative changes to temporarily bypass the Legislation Review Committee and to go directly to the Board for approval amid COVID-19 pandemic.”

Goals for Next Fiscal Year

• Initiate scoping a comprehensive review and reform of legislative requirements under the Standards of Practice.
• Review and analyze amendments to the Health Professions Act, anticipated to be released by the provincial government. In addition, develop bylaw amendments, to implement the Health Professions Act changes.
• Implementation of bylaws adopting the National Association of Pharmacy Regulatory Authorities Model Standards for Sterile Compounding.