Excerpted and adapted from
MCC-CLEO and Canada Health Act
Canadian law may differ from the laws
governing medicine in IMGs’ countries of origin. As a result, IMGs need to be
familiar with the legislation that governs the practice of medicine in Canada.
At a Federal level, the five principles of the Canada Health Act are the cornerstone of the
Canadian health care system.
The provinces, through their individual
medicine acts and regulations administer, monitor, control and enforce the various legal
aspects of practice in their own province/territory. The medical profession is self-regulating with Provincial/Territorial Medical Regulatory Authorities
responsible for maintaining standards for licensure, definition of restrictive acts,
continuing competence, clinical practice and dealing with allegations of incompetence,
incapacity or misconduct.
Some of the fundamentals of Canadian medical practice law are as follows:
• Patient consent as a fundamental legal
requirement
• The legal duty of confidentiality
• Physicians’ civil liability for their
actions and omissions
• Requirement for licensure
• Ethical obligations
• Statutory reporting requirements
• The duty to maintain medical records
• Legal obligations in the hospital context
Objectives
of the Considerations of the Legal, Ethical and Organizational Aspects of the Practice of
Medicine (CLEO) >>
The Canada Health
Act >>
Canadian Medical Protective Association
>>
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