Ont. health-care professionals to get new powers under government bill

From the Canadian Press:
Ontario wants to broaden the scope of practice for many health-care professionals as part of a strategy to address the chronic shortage of doctors, proposing new rules that would allow nurse practitioners to set broken bones and give dental hygienists the power to write prescriptions and sell medicine.

Under legislation introduced Monday, dentists would be able to fill prescriptions, pharmacists would be allowed to write refills for prescriptions, and physiotherapists would be given the power to order X-rays and treat injuries.

The proposed changes will make Ontario's health-care system more efficient and more accessible, Premier Dalton McGuinty said.

"It will free up doctors to do those kinds of things which only doctors can do," McGuinty said. "There's a number of things doctors are doing on their own right now that we think other health-care professionals can do as well." ...more