Advocating for safe work environments: Submission on proposed changes to the Occupational Health and Safety Regulation

A safe workplace is vital to a physician’s overall well-being and their ability to provide patient care. As concerns around violence and threats increase for both hospital and community-based physicians, Doctors of BC supports all efforts to address violence and harassment in the workplace.

We recently provided feedback on WorkSafeBC’s proposed amendments to the Occupational Health and Safety Regulation which would require employers to develop Harassment and Violence Prevention Programs. These requirements include contracting risk assessments, establishing training programs, and developing written policies/procedures.

In our submission to WorkSafeBC we:

• Support the proposed requirements in large, well-resourced hospitals provided any required training is appropriate, efficient, and allows for meaningful physician input into the training considerations. 

• Strongly encourage consideration of the impact the proposed changes could have on significantly smaller, under-resourced clinics where physicians – the employers – are already experiencing substantial levels of burnout from ever-increasing administrative demands.

• Recommend that the size and capability of the employer (i.e., hospital setting vs physician employer) be considered when applying the requirements to ensure that smaller clinics are not disproportionately burdened.

• Recommend that sufficient supports – such as staff training programs, policy and procedure templates, and financial supports, among others – be provided for physician employers to implement these workplace violence and prevention programs.

You can read more in our full submission.

Doctors of BC supports efforts to improve safety in the workplace, and we hope to have further discussions with stakeholders to ensure such efforts are implemented in an effective manner that reduces burdens on physicians.