The Cayton report released on April 11th contains a detailed review of the performance of the College of Dental Surgeons of British Columbia. It identified serious deficiencies in the governance of the regulator. It also concluded that there were gaps in the regulatory performance of the regulator in eleven areas. It commented on a number of areas for improvement in its external relationships with various groups. It concluded that the regulator was not focussed exclusively on its public interest mandate, particularly in the area of public safety.
The report makes a number of sweeping short term and long term proposals for regulatory reform for all health professional regulators. These include: a completely appointed Board of twelve people, half of whom are public members; merging regulators; separating out the adjudication of discipline matters and the operation of a single public register; and the creation of an oversight agency that would review and report on the regulatory performance of the regulators.
This report is broadly consistent with recent developments in British Columbia, and other provinces including Ontario and Nova Scotia and the regulatory regime that has existed in Quebec for many years. More to come.
The Cayton report can be found at: https://sml-law.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/cayton-report-college-of-dental-surgeons-2018.pdf.