In a short phone interview with IHP Magazine, Maggie Head, senior manager of policy and government relations at the Ontario Association of Naturopathic Doctors (OAND), said that the current concern of the OAND, Ontario Naturopathic Doctors, and their Ontario patients are two proposed regulatory amendments that accompany proclamation of the Naturopathy Act: the Controlled Acts Regulation and regulatory amendments to the Laboratory and Specimen Collection Centre Licensing Act, 1990.
If the regulations were to proceed without amendment, Ontario NDs would only have access to a very limited list of laboratory tests, which would exclude necessary and essential laboratory tests required for naturopathic medical assessment, diagnosis, and treatment. Another concern with the proposed regulations is that Ontario NDs would only be authorized to order laboratory tests from Ontario laboratory companies. The proposed Controlled Acts Regulation limits the number of substances that NDs may prescribe and inject and would also require that specimens be collected in laboratory, rather than in the ND’s office.
The OAND is currently running a campaign that helps Ontario NDs, their Ontario patients and students of naturopathic medicine send letters to their local Ontario Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP), with a copy to the Ontario Minister of Health. The current OAND campaign ends on June 5, without an exact date when proclamation might happen.
“Education of Ontario Members of Provincial Parliament and education of the Ontario public won’t stop at the time of proclamation,” Head said. “It’s a continuing dialogue and conversation that is necessary to ensure Ontario patients have access to naturopathic medicine as NDs have been trained to provide through their extensive education.”
