A
71
Objects and Reasons.
1. Section 11 of the Principal Ordinance (No. 41 of 1935) lists four classes of technically qualified medical or surgical practitioners who are entitled to be registered in Part I of the register kept under section 4 of that Ordinance provided that they prove to the satisfaction of the Medical Board that they are of good character.
2. Clause 2 of this Bill will add to that proviso the further requirement that they possess an adequate knowledge. of the English language, both spoken and written.
3. Such a requirement appears particularly necessary in view of the fact that some of them have obtained their degrees, diplomas or licenses in medicine and surgery in medical schools abroad where no knowledge of the English language is necessary.
4. Moreover an amendment of this nature is recom- mended by the Medical Board who have found in a number of disciplinary inquiries recently held by them that the prac- titioner concerned had no knowledge whatsoever of the English language and pleaded this fact in extenuation for the breach of regulatious and for the disregard of warning notices sent by the Medical Department.
5. Sub-section (1) of section 13 of the principal Ordin- ance provides that if any registered practitioner is convicted of any offence or after due inquiry is considered by the Medical Board to have been guilty of infamous conduct in any professional respect, the Medical Board may either censure the said registered practitioner or direct that his name be struck off the register.
6. The Medical Board have pointed out that in recent inquiries the fact that the Board was restricted to either awarding the drastic punishment of striking off or the lenient punishment of censure had been a matter for comment; and the Board is of opinion that they would have been in a much better position to deal with some of these cases if there had been a middle course open to them.
7. The Board recommends that they shall be given power to suspend a registered practitioner convicted of an offence or guilty of infamous conduct in a professional respect and also to order costs to be paid by parties attending the inquiries and that provision be made for such orders to be enforced in the Supreme Court in the same manner as judgments or orders of the Court to the like effect.
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8. Clause 3 of the Bill will give effect to these recom- mendations by substituting a more comprehensive sub-section. for section 13 (1) and by adding two new sub-sections after section 13 (6). In that part of section 13 (1) which is re-enacted by the substituted sub-section the word "judged replaces the word 'considered as the former word is used in section 29 of the Medical Act, 1858, (21 and 22 Vict. c. 90) in relation to analogous inquiries by the General Council of Medical Education and Registration of the United Kingdom.
C. G. ALABASTER,
January, 1941.
Attorney General.