Human Resources Legislative Update
Ontario Proposes Amendments to Long-Term Care Sector Regulations
Date: February 14, 2023
Ontario’s Ministry of Long-Term Care has tabled a proposal to amend Regulation 246/22 made under the Fixing Long-Term Care Act, 2021. The proposed amendments focus on changes to staffing qualifications, medication management and drug administration and overall resident experience.
Regulation 246/22 prescribes residents’ rights, plans of care, nursing and personal support services, nutritional care, medical services, processes for reporting complaints and pharmacy services, among other things.
Key proposed amendments to the Regulation, among others, are:
- changing staffing qualifications to ensure requirements are proportionate to responsibilities
- providing that all regulated health professionals may administer drugs in long-term care homes according to their scope of practice and as authorized under the Regulated Health Professions Act, 1991 (including pharmacists administering COVID-19 and flu immunizations to residents)
- providing that personal support workers may administer drugs in certain circumstances
- modernizing medical acquisition, storage and destruction
- adding COVID-19 vaccinations to the list of immunizations that must be offered to residents
- changing various criteria for the provision of air conditioning within long-term care settings (and creating a new Administrative Monetary Penalty of up to $25,000 for not meeting the requirement to have air conditioning in all resident rooms)
- clarifying the role of the medical director.
The regulatory proposal also sets out the anticipated compliance cost of these changes.
The Ministry is inviting comments on the proposed amendments to Regulation 246/22 from a range of stakeholders including residents, families, as well as the applicable professional and sector associations and long-term care licensees. Comments can be submitted by email by March 5, 2023.
Editor’s Note: these proposed regulatory amendments were filed as O. Reg. 66/23. Please see the Regulation for further details on coming into force dates.
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