By Joanne McPhail, Partner
Due to some broad wording in the Regulated Health Professions Act, 1991 (“RHPA”), currently, if a health professional treats his/her spouse, they could be guilty of sexual abuse and could lose their license for 5 years. The legislation currently has zero tolerance – a mandatory 5 year license suspension for “sexual abuse” of a patient. The definition of sexual abuse includes any sexual relationship with anyone, including a spouse. A recent case, Leering v. College of Chiropractors of Ontario found a chiropractor guilty of the offense because he treated a woman with whom he was not married but was intimately involved. The court deemed the treatment constituted sexual abuse under the Act, regardless of the nature of the pre-existing personal relationship.
The Health Professions Regulatory Advisory Council has put out a report today which can be found at http://www.health.gov.on.ca/en/public/publications/ministry_reports/hprac/201206.aspx which recommends that the current law be changed to allow health professionals to treat their spouse. As a lawyer and the spouse of a health professional, this is a long time coming, as the unintended consequences of this legislation represented a substantial risk to all health professionals and were, in this writer’s opinion, just plain silly. Good to see that sometimes reason prevails in the end!