OCP Reports Complaint-Processing Pressure as Intake Grows

The Ontario College of Pharmacists (OCP) says higher intake volumes are putting pressure on complaint processing. Its September 28–29, 2026 board report identifies delays around committee scheduling and decision production, and describes a management response involving process improvements, technology and staffing adjustments.

Read the figures in context

The accompanying board materials, page 114, report 1,073 open investigation files at June 30. They say higher-risk matters are being prioritized while lower-risk files accumulate. These are historical operational measures presented to the September meeting, not an October incident count.

A complaint, an investigation and a finding are not interchangeable. Intake alone cannot show that misconduct has increased, establish the merits of an individual complaint, or explain every delay. The useful accountability question is whether the regulator's response improves timely, fair resolution.

Why the backlog grew

The board package gives scale to the problem. OCP recorded 1,073 open investigation files at June 30, 2026. New intakes in the first half of 2026 were 36% above the comparable period in 2025; the college received about 2,500 intakes during all of 2025. An intake is not necessarily a formal complaint or an investigation. OCP says roughly a quarter of intakes have historically proceeded to investigation and that the proportion appears broadly stable, so higher volume can increase workload without showing a change in the merits of cases. The college says it cannot yet identify the precise cause of the increase. See the September board package, especially pages 130–134.

OCP describes several pressure points rather than a single bottleneck: investigations must be completed, the Inquiries, Complaints and Reports Committee must have capacity to consider them, and decisions and reasons must be issued. Its management plan includes earlier resolution where appropriate, process and technology changes, targeted staffing, and more committee meetings where possible. The report treats these as planned mitigations, not completed fixes.

What the numbers do not prove

Complaint volumes, open files and findings of professional misconduct are different measures. OCP says complaints rose from about 500 annually in prior years to about 700 in 2025, with at least that many projected for 2026. It also says the causes of rising intakes are not yet clear and other regulators have seen similar pressure. Reading these data as proof of a profession-wide decline in care would go beyond the evidence. The public-interest test is whether higher-risk matters are handled promptly while all parties receive a fair process; OCP’s future performance reporting will show whether its response is working.

Practice guidance for pharmacists

Pharmasist's practical suggestions are to keep local response processes dependable, without trying to predict a regulator's decision:

• Make it clear who receives and follows up on patient concerns in your pharmacy.
• Preserve relevant records and document communications accurately.
• Use the deadlines in an actual regulatory notice; general reports about delays do not extend them.
• Review recurring service concerns for process improvements without assuming that every complaint establishes an error.

OCP says a further report on implementation outcomes and performance indicators is planned for 2027. That follow-up will be important for assessing progress; the present report describes pressures and planned action, not proof that the problems have already been resolved. Source: board report, page 5.