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Report on an Ordinance entitled
An Ordinance to amend the Medical Registration
Ordinance, 1884.
The main object of this Ordinance is to assimilate
as far as possible the qualifications which entitle a medical
practitioner to registration in this Colony to the qualifica-
tions required in the United Kingdom and in certain parts of
His Lajesty's Dominions,
It accordingly provides that only the following
classes of persons shall be entitled to registration here:-
(a) Persons registered in some other part of His
Majesty's Dominions, whose qualification is
accepted for registration by the General Coun-
cil of Kedical Education and Registration in
the United Kingdom.
(b) Persons holding a medical degree of the University
of Hongkong.
(c) Persons holding a degree, diploma or licence
A
in medicine and surgery of any medical school
in Europe, the United States of America or the
Empire of Japan, the degrees, diplomas and licences of which are recognised as entitling to registration by the General Council of Medical Education and Registration of the United Kingdom.
Persons already on the register in the Colony
are not affected by these new provisions.
Chinese persons will be entitled as heretofore
to practise medicine and surgery according to purely
Chinese methods provided that they do not use any title cal-
culated to induce the public to believe that they are quali-
fied to practise according to modern scientific methods.
Licentiates of the Hongkong College of Medicine will
also be entitled to practise as heretofore.
Power is given to the Governor-in-Council, after consult-
ing the Medical Board, to authorise any person who was prac-
tising medicine or surgery in the Colony on or before the
first day of July, 1914, to practise medicine or surgery
here.
Section 9 of the Principal Ordinance provides that no
certificate which is by any Ordinance required to be signed
by a medical or surgical practitioner shall be valid unless
the person signing it is registered under the Ordinance. It
has however been the practice to accept death certificates
from certain unregistered persons approved for that purpose
by the Governor, and regulations have been laid down to be
observed by such authorised persons. This practice is regu-
larised in the present Ordinance which gives the Governor
power to authorise approved persons to sign these certificate:
and gives the Governor-in-Council power to make regulations
to be observed by them. All persons resident in the Colony
who were previously authorised to sign death certificates
will be authorised to do so under the Ordinance.
Provision is made for the publication annually of a list
of the persons authorised to practise on the ground of pre-
vious practice in the Colony, and of a list of the persons
authorised to sign death certificates.
The word "practise" is defined so as to include the diag-
nosis of disease, whether the cases diagnosed be treated or
not, but the definition is guarded so as not to make illegal
the work of laboratory assistants who work for or under a
registered practitioner.