The College of Traditional Chinese Medicine Practitioners and Acupuncturist of Ontario (the “College”) is seeking an independent consultant to facilitate an amendment to the Registration Regulation (Ontario Regulation 27/13) to include a Doctor Class of registration for Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) Practitioners and/or Acupuncturists in Ontario.
The College was proclaimed on April 1, 2013 by the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, now Ministry of Health (MOH), under the Regulated Health Professions Act, 1991 (RHPA) and the Traditional Chinese Medicine Act, 2006 (TCM Act) as the regulatory body that regulates TCM practitioners and acupuncturists in Ontario. The mandate of the College is to protect the public interest. The College has approximately 2,700 registered members who are able to use protected titles and perform two-authorized controlled acts: 1) performing a procedure on tissue below the dermis and below the surface of a mucous membrane for the purpose of performing acupuncture and 2) communicating a traditional Chinese medicine diagnosis identifying a body system disorder as the cause of a person’s symptoms using traditional Chinese medicine techniques. (TCM Act, c.27, s. 4).
The controlled acts are used within the scope of practice as: “The practice of traditional Chinese medicine is the assessment of body system disorders through traditional Chinese medicine techniques and treatment using traditional Chinese medicine to promote, maintain or restore health”. (TCM Act, c.27, s. 3)
Currently, the College has four classes of registration (General, Student, Inactive and Temporary) that are defined in the Registration Regulation of the TCM Act. Only registered members of this College are permitted to use the authorized titles and designations: Registered Traditional Chinese Medicine Practitioner (R. TCMP) and Registered Acupuncturist (R. Ac). At the moment, there is no doctor class of registration for this profession and members of this College are not permitted to use the “doctor” title.
On December 30, 2016, section 18(1) of the TCM Act was proclaimed to permit TCM practitioners in Ontario to use the title “doctor” upon amendment of the Registration Regulation. The College is seeking a consultant to assist the College in establishing the required competencies for Doctor Title eligibility and a process to assess those competencies. Details can be found in Section 4, Project Requirement and Deliverables.
