Report of the Royal Commissioners appointed to inquire into the medical acts : with minutes of evidence, appendices, and index.

  • Great Britain. Parliament. Medical Acts Commission.
Date:
1882
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the Royal Commissioners appointed to inquire into the medical acts : with minutes of evidence, appendices, and index. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

    445/494 (page 389)
    2. The General Medical Council. The reconstitution of the General Medical Council is a very difficult question. Whether it were well consti- tuted in the first instance, the Society consider that to remodel it is a matter of doubtful expediency. At any rate they decline to suggest (as has been too frequently done on grounds mostly baseless, so far as facts are concerned) the exclusion of this or that body. A reversal, to a. considerable extent, of the relations be- tween the Privy Council and the General Medical Council, as existing under the Act of 1858, and the establishment of a conjoint board under a sound and compulsory system would be of far greater public benefit than to remodel the General Medical Council. Had not the Society’s right to representation on the Council been so persistently and so gratuitously con- tested, they would shrink from repeating that a body (whose licentiates number between eight and nine thou- sand) seems of all the existing bodies the most qualified to join in working out and watching over a new system. The Apothecaries Act, 1815, and the Apothecaries Act Amendment Act, 1874, and their working out of those Acts show the Society to have been a wise, liberal, and reforming body, and by the aid of their corporate pro- perty referred to in answer to Return 3, they have the means of developing their academic and scientific resources, and of making their body as attractive as it has hitherto been useful. Returns 1 and 2. — Number of Certificates. Amount received. £ s. d. 1876 257 1,619 2 0 1877 206 1,297 16 0 1878 223 1,404 14 0 1879 - ... 216 1,360 16 0 1880 228 1,436 8 0 3. From dividends on 2,4501 consols, repre- senting excess of receipts over payments in respect of licenses for past years, and invested ... about £72. From dividends on bank stock, fees, &c., &c., entirely applied for Corporation purposes and kept distinct from examiners’ fund, about £3,000. UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH. University of Edinburgh, Sir, 29th July 1881. In reply to the invitation conveyed in your letter of the 8th of July 1881, I have to state that the Senatus Academicus of the University of Edinburgh gladly avail themselves of the opportunity to afford such assist- ance as they can to the Medical Acts Commissioners, by furnishing them with the following expression of opinion on the questions submitted to the University, and with the returns the Commissioners request. 1. The Licensing System. The Senatus Academicus of the University of Edin- burgh are of opinion that an alteration in the present system of licensing is required in those cases where a single qualification alone is conferred by any licensing board. Wherever such a system exists, they consider that an alteration would be advantageous in the direc- tion of conjunction between licensing boards granting only single qualifications, so that the possession of com- plete qualifications in medicine, surgery, and midwifery may be ensured as a necessary condition for the admis- sion to the register. The University of Edinburgh and the other Scottish Universities grant degrees in medicine and surgery (M.B., C.M., and M.D.), which separately constitute registrable qualifications, no one of which, however, is granted until complete education and examination have been undergone in all the departments, both scientific and practical, of medicine, surgery, and midwifery. As a matter of fact, the greater number (about 95 per cent.) of the candidates for medical degrees have hitherto proceeded simultaneously to the two degrees of M.B. and C.M. The Scottish Universities, however, have now taken the necessary steps for rendering it com- pulsory on all their candidates for graduation in medi- cine to take both degrees, so that in future no candi- date shall receive the one degree without the other. They therefore consider that no scheme of conjunction is required for them, as they already confer a complete or so-called “ double qualification.” The examining board of each of the Scottish Universities consists, in part, of professors of the faculty of medicine in the University, and in part of examiners appointed ah extra by the University courts. These examiners are either specialists in the department of medical science in which they examine, or are physicians or surgeons of standing and experience. They are appointed by the University court entirely on account of their merits, as is evidenced by the fact that during the last seven years out of 19 examiners appointed by the University court of this University, 10 were gentlemen residing out of Scotland, and, with one exception, attached to other medical schools. These non-professorial examiners share equally with the professorial examiners in the work and responsibility of the examinations, and they therefore constitute an element in the examining boards which guarantees the fairness and strictness of the examinations. The constitution of the examining boards, the curri- culum of education, and the rules for examination, were framed by an executive commission appointed under the Scottish Universities Act, 1858, and they were afterwards confirmed by the sanction of the Privy Council. From time to time alterations and improve- ments have been made in the regulations, but no Scot- tish University can alter its regulations or introduce new regulations without the consent of the other Uni- versities of Scotland and the approval of the Privy Council. As the Privy Council is the department of the State that has special charge of education, the Scot- tish Universities claim for their degrees that they are already under the control of the State, and are to that extent “ State degrees or licenses.” They are not aware that any other medical authority has its degrees, diplomas, or other registrable qualifications under an equally direct control by the State. These facts show that the University of Edinburgh and the other Universities of Scotland are already in the position of granting complete qualifications in medicine, surgery, and midwifery ; that their examina- tions are conducted by a board comprising an extra- University element; and that the regulations for the education and examination of their candidates are, and for many years have been, under the control of the State. Under these circumstances, the Senatus Academicus of the University of Edinburgh would in the strongest manner deprecate any proposal for subjecting their students or graduates to the inconvenience, pecuniary loss, and unnecessary harassment of undergoing the examinations of any additional board in order to obtain admission to the Medical Register. They would consider it impossible for them to dele- gate to any authority outside of the University any share of the responsibility which the University has in the granting of her own medical degrees. 2. General Medical Council. In reply to the second subject of inquiry, the Senatus Academicus of this University entertain the opinion that the present powers and functions of the General Medical Council are on the whole satisfactory. They are aware, however, that it is being urged in several quarters that modifications should be made. Should any modification be adopted with respect to the f unctions of the General Medical Council, the Senatus consider that it should include some provision ensuring