ABSTRACT
This chapter examines public inquiries into scandals related to the professional practices of health professionals in two jurisdictions, Canada and Britain, between 1980 and 2005 to analyse the implications for health professional regulation. Government sanctioned self-regulation occurs when government, through legislation, delegates regulatory powers to a profession(s) to self-govern. Fourteen public inquiries were commissioned within Britain's National Health Service (NHS) between 1980 and 2005, raising issues that touched upon professional regulation. The allegations that the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO) had ineffectively dealt with sexual abuse complaints involved multiple patients: the Taskforce on Sexual Abuse of Patients by Physicians (TSAPP) heard 303 detailed reports of sexual abuse of patients by doctors and other health professionals. The combined effect of the events in Britain was to create public and political demands for greater control over the actions of health professionals and oversight of health professional regulators.
