Discussion · Government Orders
Matt Strauss Conservative
“As a doctor in Ontario, I know our hospitals still cannot easily share patient records with each other. The minister says this bill will not replace Ontario's existing laws. I want to know if this bill will actually change anything in Ontario or not.”
“Madam Speaker, I was interested in the point the minister made about Ontario and Quebec already having legislation that this legislation would not supersede. This interested me in particular because, as a physician practising in Ontario, I know that the clinical notes from one hospital that I worked at over the last few years in Guelph, Ontario, could be viewed in the region west of Toronto, but I also worked in Kingston, Ontario, over that time, and clinical notes from my other work in Guelph could not be viewed in that region. Even Ontario has not resolved this problem within the province. I wonder if we are talking about whether Ontario has legislation that calls for this, or about whether Ontario has a reality of interoperability between all the regions in Ontario. Would Bill S-5 affect Ontario as it stands today or not?”
Madam Speaker, I was interested in the point the minister made about Ontario and Quebec already having legislation that this legislation would not supersede. This interested me in particular because, as a physician practising in Ontario, I know that the clinical notes from one hospital that I worked at over the last few years in Guelph, Ontario, could be viewed in the region west of Toronto, but I also worked in Kingston, Ontario, over that time, and clinical notes from my other work in Guelph could not be viewed in that region. Even Ontario has not resolved this problem within the province. I wonder if we are talking about whether Ontario has legislation that calls for this, or about whether Ontario has a reality of interoperability between all the regions in Ontario. Would Bill S-5 affect Ontario as it stands today or not?