Registrant Q & A

BC’s health minister has publicly indicated his support for a single oral health college as part of the government’s plan to modernize the health regulatory system to better serve patients and the public.   

By pursuing amalgamation voluntarily, we are able to do it on our own terms and timelines rather than waiting until it is imposed on us.  Following a survey of registrants of the four dental colleges, we learned there is a preference for the Colleges to take the lead in the amalgamation process rather than waiting for the government to mandate it.   

Relationship is the biggest driver of patient satisfaction. In a changing health care delivery model with an increasing emphasis on team-based care, coordination of services will require increased collaboration amongst oral health professions. An amalgamated regulator will facilitate this.  

Registrants at all four Colleges confirmed via a survey that their regulatory colleges play an important part in enabling them to provide safe and effective patient care.  

The new regulator will continue regulating all the oral health professions in the public interest. 

An amalgamation of the oral health regulators is not an amalgamation of the oral health professions. In other words, while a reduction in the number of regulatory colleges is being recommended by the Minister, the intention of this change is not to reduce the number of regulated health professions.   

Each of the six oral health professions will remain distinct and will be embedded in the design of the new regulator.