Medical Act 1858
The Medical Act 1858 (c. 90) was a British Act of Parliament which created the General Medical Council to regulate doctors in the UK.
Describing its purpose, the act notes that "it is expedient that Persons requiring Medical Aid should be enabled to distinguish qualified from unqualified Practitioners".[1]
The act creates the position of Registrar of the General Medical Council — an office still in existence today — whose duty is to keep up-to-date records of those registered to practise medicine and to make them publicly available.
The act has now been almost entirely repealed.[2] The current law governing medical regulation is the Medical Act 1983.[3]
It stated that under the Poor Law system Boards of Guardians could only employ those qualified in medicine and surgery as Poor Law Doctors.[4]
Under a clause in the Act that recognized doctors with foreign degrees practising in Britain, Elizabeth Blackwell was able to become the first woman to have her name entered on the Medical Register (1 January 1859).[5]
References
- ^ Template:OPSI
- ^ Template:UK-SLD
- ^ http://www.gmc-uk.org/about/legislation/uk_primary_legislation.asp
- ^ http://www.institutions.org.uk/poor_law_unions/the_poor_law1.htm
- ^ Elston, M. A. (2004). "Blackwell, Elizabeth (1821–1910)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 2008-12-29.