You're 100% correct and I agree with you BUT...

the only problem is that there was only one reason for setting it up: a beaurocrat didn't want to retire, so it became his pet project and he was able to delay retirement for a decade. When he retired no one paid any further attention to chiropody and that's why nothing was done during the past 15 years and nothing will be done. Sad but true! You watch...MOU will be studied for a few years and then swept under the rug after the Michener lobbies the kukoos (oops, I mean cocoo) long and hard to change their mind and during those in camera sessions a decision will be made to let the MOU be left alone until circumstantial rigor mortis sets in and it becomes undoable.

FYI: the beaurocrat simply used "smoke and mirrors" to get other senior level beaurocrats to agree with him and so the chiropody program was born. Among the many arguments that were used ...included that podiatrists' services for basic foot care were too costly, podiatrists did too many unnecessary surgeries but weren't trained to the high standards as orthopedic surgeons in Canada. The indirect attack on podiatrists by creating the chiropodist category worked because the volume of basic foot care was reduced for podiatrists (most were doing basic foot care and some foot surgery about a ratio of 90:10). After chiropodists started working on building their private practises, the government intervened indirectly by opening up the scalpel reduction/enucleation of calluses/corns by deleting it from The Chiropody Act, 1991, thereby permitting nurses and European trained pedicurists to use scalpels to treat corns and calluses. The chiropodists in private practise ended up with a lot of competition from the lower cost foot care providers and from their borthers and sisters employed in hospitals and commuinty health centers, where they work evenings and the occasional weekend. Also, the chiropodists were restricted (and podiatrists were also restricted) from many normal diagnostic tests -this was done to try to get the podiatrists to leave for greener pastures and further, podiatrists' registration as podiatrists with the ability to acquire an OHIP billing number was capped. The government had decided that podiatry in Ontario was a "sunset" profession -and that's the attitude today (like it or not). The podiatrists agreed to this by getting the government to permit them to have bone surgery on the forefoot. (I guess the podiatrists felt that it would be easier to get the cap lifted than to get their scope of practise expanded if they agreed to not having the right to perform forefoot bone surgery.) Since RNs trained as nurse chiropodists wanted to be paid more than the average nurse their training was stopped and chiropodists were created to be lower than nurses, lower pay and over time.... chiropody would shut down podiatry with no public outcry --how many public committees etc have been set up with citizens demanding that podiatrists be trainedn Ontario? I would hazard a guess... zero.

So there you have it, low cost foot care for the government. A job was extended for a decade. Podiatrists, which were not liked by the physicians and surgeons in Ontario, got restricted in practise (and in numbers) and podiatry will eventually retire as a profession in Ontario. Foot care nurses would cost too much, so chiropodists with less training, were created to be paid less than RNs (and even RPNs). Chiropodists with their low level of training could not move onto government beaurocratic positions where they could influence chiropody policy and with the low level of training there's no "brain drain" --an Ontario trained chiropodist can't go to America to practise as a podiatrist and this includes the most populated provinces in Canada and most other developed countries --although lots of 3rd world countries will accept Ontario chiropodists provided they are self funded.

Just look at Quebec... their made at home pedicurist program was set up in the 1950s, then it was shut down around 1980 with the announcement that the best foot care program in the world was going to be set up in a few years ... so 25 years later, rather than accepting Ontario's chiropodists as equivalent (BTW some of us are fluent enough with Parisian French that we could get by with their Quebecoise French) by changing their Act, the Quebec government is spending millions to set up a podiatry program with one of their preferred neighbours... New York State (of the USA). Yes I believe that Canada is a great country but rather than cooperating with a provincial neighbour, heck let's deal with an American state --because as we all know Canada has the best health care system in the world but when it comes to health care we know that the USA has the best health care if you can afford it.

Just to give you a little perspective on what's been happening with the scope of practise of chiropody/podiatry in Ontario pretend that you could step into a time machine and visit a new graduate's private practise in 1990, now visit one this year --any difference??? NO. Now do the same for a newly graduated: DDS, opthamologist or DVS in 1990 and compare to the new graduate of today. Any differences? Yup. The 1990 DDS wasn't doing in office general anesthesia today it's being done, also today... all sorts of in bone artificial tooth implants are being done and there are lots of laser techniques for different conditions some of course esthetic. The same holds for DVS and opthamologists. As for the chiropodist graduating in 2005 the private practise will be identical in scope and technique to the chiropodist of 1990. Judging by the past I can safely bet that the chiropodist of 2025 will have the same scope and the chiropodist graduating in 2050 in Ontario will have the same scope as today's chiropodist graduate. Now compare this to where nursing was in 1990 and look at how far it has come and I bet nursing will get even more important and prominent in Ontario's health care system and chiropody will continue to pust itself into ... oblivion ... the same is happening to podiatry in Ontario. Don't believe me, criticize me but like it or not it's reality. Sad but true!!!