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Board Highlights - November 20, 2020
Topics include the Chair and Vice-Chair elections; amendments to OAT-CAMPP training deadlines in Professional Practice Policy-66; a request for a College name change and much more!
How to Watch
Along with organizations across Canada, College staff and Board members have been doing our part to reduce the spread of COVID-19 by working remotely. As such, this month’s Board meeting was conducted virtually, via video conference.
A recording of the November Board Meeting is available here:
Board Chair and Vice-Chair Election Results
The College Board elections for Chair and Vice-Chair took place at the November meeting.
Chair: Claire Ishoy, District 7 - Community Hospitals representative, was elected Board Chair
Vice-Chair: Steven Hopp, District 4 - Kootenay/Okanagan representative, was elected Vice-Chair
Appointment of Board Members to Committees
The Board approved a number of new appointments to certain College committees.
College committees are a vital resource to the Board that provide essential advice, expertise, and recommendations that ultimately help inform Board decisions.
The Governance Committee met on October 29, 2020. It reviewed the current roster of committee members and is proposing certain changes to committee membership. The proposed changes are due in part to the Board Chair and Vice Chair election which takes place at every November Board meeting.
Audit and Finance Committee
- Appoint newly elected Board Chair, Claire Ishoy as Member
- Reappoint newly elected Board Vice-Chair, Steven Hopp as Member and Committee Chair
- Reappoint Alex Dar Santos as Committee Vice-Chair
- Reappoint Tracey Hagkull as Member
- Reappoint Anca Cvaci as Member
- Remove Christine Antler as Member
Governance Committee
- Appoint Christine Antler as a Member, for a 3-year term, ending April 30, 2024.
Past Chairs Advisory Committee
- Appoint Christine Antler as a Member, for a 3-year term, ending April 30, 2024.
Registrar Evaluation & Succession Planning Committee
- Appoint newly elected Board Chair, Claire Ishoy as Member and Committee Chair
- Reappoint newly elected Board Vice-Chair, Steven Hopp as Member and Committee Vice-Chair
- Reappoint Alex Dar Santos as Member
- Reappoint Justin Thind as Member
- Reappoint Christine Antler as Member
- Remove Christine Antler as Committee Chair
- Remove Anca Cvaci as Member and Committee Vice-Chair
Professional Practice Policy 66 - Amendments to Training Deadlines
The Board approved amendments to Professional Practice Policy 66: Opioid Agonist Treatment (PPP-66) to extend the deadline for transitioning to the Opioid Agonist Treatment Compliance and Management Program for Pharmacy (OAT-CAMPP), from March 31, 2021 to September 30, 2021.
In November 2018, the Board approved amendments to PPP-66 to phase out the College’s Methadone Maintenance Treatment (MMT) training program and transition to the new OAT-CAMPP, developed by the Ministry of Health (Ministry) and the British Columbia Pharmacy Association (BCPhA).
PPP-66 initially required that registrants complete the applicable components of OAT-CAMPP by March 30, 2021.
However, in March 2020, the in-person OAT-CAMPP training was suspended due to the sudden onset of the COVID-19 public health emergency.
The BCPhA has now developed an on-line version of OAT-CAMPP. It has been accredited by the Canadian Council on Continuing Education in Pharmacy (CCCEP), and the first OAT training workshops begin on November 20, 2020.
The 6-month training deadline extension was made to recognize the impact of COVID-19 and the temporary suspension of the OAT-CAMMP. Registrants employed in a community pharmacy that provides pharmacy services related to opioid agonist treatment are strongly encouraged to complete the OAT-CAMPP program as soon as practicable.
Amendments to the Drug Administration Standards, Limits and Conditions
The Board accepted, in principle, amendments to the Drug Administration by Injection and Intranasal Route Standards, Limits and Conditions, to remove certain restrictions on pharmacist injection and intranasal administration of medications. These amendments were originally proposed to the Board by the Drug Administration Committee in September 2020.
The Board was presented with the proposed amendments to the Drug Administration by Injection and Intranasal Route Standards, Limits and Conditions (Standards, Limits and Conditions) at the September 2020 Board meeting. The Board decided to table the in-principle acceptance of the proposed amendments until the November 2020 Board meeting; however, the Board did direct the Registrar to engage with the Ministry of Health on moving the proposed amendments forward.
The Registrar continues to engage with the Ministry of Health, as directed by the Board at the September meeting, on the removal of restrictions.
Stay tuned for updates from the College on when the amendments to the Drug Administration by Injection and Intranasal Route Standards, Limits and Conditions will come into effect.
Got Your Health Equity Glasses On?
Sana Shahram, Assistant Professor at UBC, and Collaborating Scientist with UVIC and the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research presented to the Board on the systemic roots of inequitable health outcomes.
Health equity means all people (individuals, groups and communities) are able to reach their full health potential and are not disadvantaged by social, economic and environmental conditions.
Health inequity refers to the differences in health which are not only unnecessary and avoidable but, in addition, are considered unfair and unjust.
Sana discussed social determinants of health, with particular focus on race, gender and culture. She began by citing the Public Health Agency of Canada’s report “What makes Canadians Health or Unhealthy. The PHAC explains that:
“Some persons or groups may face additional health risks due to a socio-economic environment, which is largely determined by dominant cultural values that contribute to the perpetuation of conditions such as marginalization, stigmatization, loss or devaluation of language and culture and lack of access to cultural appropriate health care and services.”
Sana explained that there are patterned, systematic differences in the health of different groups of people within any society, and that these difference are socially determined and have very little to do with health care, individual behaviours or lifestyles.
Sana went on to discuss the following systemic contributors to health inequity in Canada:
College Name Change
The Board approved moving forward with submitting a request to the Minister of Health to change the name of the College of Pharmacists of British Columbia as part of the anticipated amendments to the Health Professions Act.
The HPA states that the Minister may prescribe the name of a college for a health profession by regulation. As such, implementing changes to the College’s name is a matter under the jurisdiction of the Minister of Health. And, the College must make a request to the Minister, if it wishes to initiate a name change.
The College’s name has not been static over its 125-year existence. The original name of the College was the Pharmaceutical Association of British Columbia. It was not until the late 1960s that the College began using its current name.
In 2016, the College held an engagement to solicit feedback on a potential name change. In general, the results highlighted support for a change.
In June 2018, the Board Chair wrote to the Minister of Health, requesting changing the College’s name to the College of Pharmacy of British Columbia in order to more accurately reflect its full scope of responsibilities and enhance public protection, as well as to align better with the name changes of similar regulatory bodies. The Minister responded in August 2018, declining to move forward with the proposed name change at that time.
Currently, the Ministry of Health is in the process of exploring how to modernize health profession regulation. The College has engaged in consultations to help inform this work and provided a general recommendation on the approach to naming health professional colleges. In particular, the College suggested taking a principle-based approach to naming each regulatory body that increases transparency and provides clarity to the public on who to turn to and we recommended that a college name reflect the profession(s) they regulate in order to enhance transparency and support easy patient navigation.
Medical Delegation Request - Heart @ Home
The Board approved a delegation request to authorize pharmacists involved in the Heart @ Home program to administer injections beyond vaccinations such as methotrexate, B-12, and post-surgical anticoagulants based on a patient specific order provided by the attending physician, as delegated by Dr. Steven C. Gordon. This request was also approved by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of BC.
The Heart @ Home program is a pharmacist-led medication adherence and monitoring program. It involves registered care aids or nurses who visit patients’ homes daily for wellness checks and medication adherence monitoring. Patients may require insulin or other injections (i.e., methotrexate, testosterone, B12, post-surgical anticoagulants).
Since the onset of the COVID-19 public health emergency, the Heart @ Home program has experienced difficulty in securing nursing staff to administer injections due to nursing needs in other sectors of the community and/or having to be put on leave out of precaution due to respiratory symptoms or travel.
Program staff are concerned that securing nursing staff will be even more challenging in the fall/winter, when respiratory viruses other than COVID-19 are circulating. In cases when a nurse is unavailable, the Heart @ Home program would like to have a pharmacist conduct the home visit and administer injections.