Provincial Medical Leadership Council (PMLC)

Dear Members; 

I write today to provide an update on the status of the Provincial Medical Leadership Council (PMLC) process. For some time now, the Employer has been less then engaged with PMLC. Recently, at a Strategic Practice Advisory Council (SPAC) meeting, BCEHS informed us that they were moving forward with a plan to replace PMLC with another committee.  This is a departure from what we discussed at previous meetings, which was a re-purpose of PMLC to focus on implementation of practice changes flowing from SPAC.

The new committee will be the Pharmacy, Therapeutics, Research and Practice Advisory Committee (PTRPAC).  This committee will have a newly created Director of Paramedic Practice, which we have been informed will be a paramedic.

We await the final terms of reference, mandate and composition of the is new committee.  The only concrete information that we know right now is that the committee will align itself like other health committees under the Quality structure and that it will have practitioner input.  We currently do not know how the practitioner representatives will be appointed or what type of function they will serve.

Unfortunately, there is no Collective Agreement language establishing a right to a PMLC and thus, we believe, the Employer can create, disband or modify committees under their right to manage article. Accordingly, we have no choice but to disband PMLC. Despite this, we remain committed to Paramedic practitioner involvement in both our quality and professional advancement processes.

As you may be aware, there is currently a call for nominations for a position on the PMLC committee. Our union bylaws define this position, and thus this nomination and election must continue until the bylaws are changed. A resolution to Convention 2017 has been submitted to address this situation.

Thank you for your understanding about this change, and please stay tuned for further updates about the new PTRPAC committee.

Sincerely, 

Bronwyn Barter
Provincial President
Ambulance Paramedics & Emergency Dispatchers of BC
CUPE Local 873

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