"When you get into the private clinics and
facilities of that nature, it appears we don't have the same kind of oversight
and regulatory environment as hospitals," Douglas Angus, a health
economist and professor at the University of Ottawa's school of management told
the CBC.
Infection concerns were raised this past week when 6,800
people were sent registered letters informing them a private clinic in ottawa
didn't always follow infection prevention and cleaning protocols for endoscopic
equipment.
"I look at this [the Ottawa clinic situation] as a
wakeup call and I would think governments across the country should be saying
that this is something we should be taking a careful look at," says Angus.
Dr. Michael Gardam, director of infection prevention and
control with Toronto's University Health Network, told the broadcaster that
"if you're opening a clinic, the onus is on the owner of the clinic to
make sure they follow proper sanitation practices. One of the challenges is
that as a doctor, no one teaches you this stuff."
"Patients are well within their right to ask if
their equipment is sanitized appropriately, and [clinic staff] may say yes, but
they may not know much about it. If you're a doctor who is about to strike out
on your own and open a new clinic, while you're busy picking out your office
furniture, remember there's a huge chunk of [opening a clinic] — and that is
equipment reprocessing … and that is the piece that can slip through the
cracks," Dr. Gardam adds.
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