02/24/2025    Irv Luftig, BSc, DPMI

The Wonder Bread Solution (Stephen Peslar, Bsc, DCH)

Stephen Peslar is correct that many of the
chiropodist graduates have left the profession,
and the actual DPM Podiatrist population is
dwindling because of the idiotic 1993 legislation
stopping any DPM podiatrists coming into Ontario
from practicing their full scope. This was a power
grab by the medical establishment and an extremely
poorly thought-out attempt by the government of
the day to bring in chiropody practitioners to
work in nursing homes and hospital clinics on a
salary. The right to establish themselves as
private practitioners and make positive progress
in Ontario was through a charter of rights
challenge brought by the chiropodists in the late
1980s which was successful. The governing college
for the profession has been fighting tooth and
nail for many years to establish podiatry as a
properly recognized profession and unify us and
increase our scope of practice to a full scope.

I personally had a wonderful and fulfilling career
as a DPM podiatrist in Ontario until my
retirement. There are many excellent, hardworking
chiropodists and many excellent, well trained,
skilled podiatrists in Ontario who have been
pioneers in surgical procedures and put in the
work tirelessly and often thanklessly to advance
our profession in Ontario , such as Drs. Hartley
Miltchin, Sheldon Nadal, Peter Stavropoulos, Bruce
Ramsden, and others.

I spent 7 years volunteering my time, while still
running an extremely busy practice, on the
Discipline committee and the Investigation
Complaints committee (as well as other committees)
of our governing college. I felt I should give
back to my profession. Stephen intimates that over
30% of chiropodists and multiple chiropody
association presidents are no longer practicing
because they couldn’t earn a living wage. In my
time working on college committees, I concluded
that many of the younger generation of
chiropodists were not willing to put in the work,
learn from others and establish their own
practices.

Many took shortcuts with rich quick schemes that
contravened best practices (and I am being
generous), and ran afoul of the college, losing
their license or being suspended for extended
periods of time resulting in practice closures
with insurmountable loss of patients and income.
This generation simply was not willing to put in
the time that we did as podiatrists back in the
1970s, 1980s, and forward. That is why they left
the profession, willingly or not

Irv Luftig, BSc, DPM, Hamilton, Ontario

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