CO129-420 - Governor Sir May - 1915 [1-2] — Page 69

66

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.