REPORT PROFESSIONALS WITH ADDICTIONS: INQUEST JURY

11 Recommendations Made

WOODSTOCK - Doctors and nurses who could be a threat to patients because of
alcohol or drug problems should be reported by those treating them, an
inquest jury said Friday.

In addition, the jury suggested drugs in patients' homes should be tracked
by home care nurses and a family member or pharmacist.

But those are only two of 11 recommendations the five-person jury made late
Friday afternoon after less than two days of deliberations.

The recommendations came after nine days of testimony into the drug
overdose deaths of Tammy Moore and Bruce Reid.

"I think some of these recommendations are going to go a long way to
preventing other tragedies," Crown attorney Lori Hamilton said Friday. "And
not just prevent other tragedies but also, hopefully, get some help for
some professional people who are in trouble."

Other recommendations include:

- - Current and past employers for all nurses be tracked by the College of
Nurses of Ontario.

- - At least two nurses share the care/responsibility for a seriously ill or
dying patient.

- - The College of Nurses create a voluntary treatment program for nurses
with substance abuse problems similar to the Physician Help Program - which
is available for doctors.

- - Drug containers have clear instructions on how to dispose of left over
medication.

The most wide ranging recommendation, mandatory reporting of suspected
substance abuse problems, could have an impact all across the province's
health sector as another level of patient-doctor confidentiality is taken away.

"The mandatory duty to report under the Regulated Health Professions Act
should supercede patient confidentiality," the jury recommended.

While many health professionals who testified recommended some type of
change, they said global reporting would only drive substance abuse
underground.

The jury appeared to listen to those warnings with its recommendation of
reporting only when a patient might be at risk.

Many of the recommendations - such as the the establishment of a treatment
program for nurses - were expected.

Some - like the sharing of responsibility for serious patients - were not.

"There were some that I suggested that weren't made," Hamilton said. "There
were also some that were not only made but adopted word for word from
materials I provided."

The jury came to its conclusions after listening to testimony from health
care experts, policy makers, nurses and doctors who treated Moore and Reid
and even family members.

The recommendations will now be forwarded to the Office of the Chief
Coroner in Toronto and from there to the appropriate parties - in this case
the College of Nurses, the provincial government and pharmacies across the
province.

The organizations will then either implement the recommendations or prepare
a report for the Coroner's office saying why a recommendation shouldn't or
can't be implemented.

Hamilton said there is no set schedule for a response though it must be
done within a reasonable amount of time.

She said about 70 to 80 per cent of inquest recommendations in Ontario are
implemented.

"We could really do some good in this," she said.

Moore and Reid were found dead in her Woodstock home on Jan. 12, 2001 after
overdosing on drugs she had taken from her home care patients.

Moore overdosed twice previously in September 2000, the first time ending
up in Cambridge Memorial Hospital where she was supposed to be working.

The second and third ultimately fatal overdose were on drugs she'd taken
from patients.

She was never reported to the College of Nurses and even though a
psychiatrist said she wasn't fit to work, she was hired by another home
care firm only days before her death.