Dear Think Long and Hard,

You're way way behind the times.


It's a well known fact that, 'Ontario's DPM's were the fasted bed sheet removers in the world'. Does taking the proposed DPM course mean I will one day be able to treat 75 plus nursing home patients in one session day, bill OHIP and be back home in time for an early supper? This was happening here in Ontario back in 1980!

You're not suggesting we now have to spend four years and over a hundred thousand dollars to learn how to ruffle-up bed sheets ?


For Ontario DPM's - Nursing homes and seniors means one thing, "Bank machine!" I saw a patient with topheous gout it was obvious what it was, well he was bitter and angry at a DPM -who charged him $100 for a consultation, examination and x-rays and told him that orthotics would help him. When the patient asked if they will clear up the swelling of his 1st mpjs the DPM said maybe but if the swelling doesn't improve he should see his GP. So because he was unable to see his MD he saw me and got a blood test also there was a slight discharge occurring, so a swab was done for CS. He was prescribed meds to lower his uric acid levels. His total charge was $0. So I can assure you that he will be writing a letter to the Health Minister complaining about the DPM. With this being done (I don't know how often) negative letters keep arriving at the Minister's office and do you think that he will open up podiatry or start the funding for a podiatry program?

The nursing profession knows this. The Ontario Ministry of Health now knows this. Do you honestly think they're going to invest actual health dollars in a DPM course? No of course not. We don't copy Quebec, we're bilingual and Quebec is unilingual and that's just the start of the differences. Our Ontario trained lawyers can't practise there and Quebec has the most privatized public health care system in Canada and was even granted an exception from Ottawa recently to continue to do this.

That's why Ontario Ministry of Health introduced chiropody to shut down podiatry and now is replacing the it with a nurse practitioner foot training project (N.P.F.T).

Fully covered and taught by nurse practioners capable of more comprehensive foot treatment than chiropodists, many of which think of themselves as Ontario's primary podiatric pedicurist providers.
It's gonna be fun.

BTW, I graduated over 20 years ago from the Ontario chiropody programme and things were just as screwed up then as they are now and all sorts of solutions were being worked on and the saying of the day was, "give another 5-10 years and things will get better... you'll see." My fellow graduates couldn't make a go of it in private chiropody practise despite the fact that there were waiting lists of 10+ months at the hospital chiropody clinics and to get an appointment at a private chiropody clinic you could get in the same day or next. But most found that their private chiropody clinics were very slow, so they quit the chiropody profession as I did. Rmember, this was when there were about 170 chiropodists and podiatrists in all of Ontario! Then I did my nursing diploma and then upgraded to nurse practioner. Nowadays, I do lots of nurse practioner treatments that I learned as a chiropody student and my services are fully covered and in fact, my scope of practise is larger than it was when I was a Registered Chiropodist with the Board of Regents, Chiropody Act of Ontario and just try reporting me to cocoo ; ) FYI: I'm teaching other R.N.(E.C.)s all sorts of foot treatments.

When I think back to the days when I was a chiropodist and now that I'm a nurse pracitioner and what I foot problems I regularly treat today, I thought of this baseball analogy: chiropodists are the equivalent of bat boys. Nurse practioners are true members of the team and they actually play on the field. Bat boys (chiropodists) wear the uniforms, speak the language, handle the equipment, wonder onto the baseball diamond but are not real members of the baseball team -just like the chiropodists in Ontario's medical system. Moreover just like the Blue Jay's bat boys, chiropodists can only function here in Ontario. Nurses, MDs, NPs, OTs, PTs (just like the Blue Jay baseball team members) can live & work in the USA, Australia, the UK, Europe. Conclusion D.Ch.= D.O.A. for a long term career, with lots of options and potential employers, and international (or for that matter even national) recognition. Career hindsight clearly proves: my worst choice = chiropody and the best thing I did = nursing. Do you chiropodists really want to continue as "bat boys" in Ontario's medical system?

Jane, R.N.(E.C.), DCh. and formerly registered with those kukus