The European Primary Medical Qualifications Regulations 1996

Registration by virtue of primary United Kingdom or primary European qualifications

3.—(1) For section 3 of the Act there is substituted—

“3.    Registration by virtue of primary United Kingdom or primary European qualifications.

(1) Subject to the provisions of this Act any person who—

(a) holds one or more primary United Kingdom qualifications and has passed a qualifying examination and satisfies the requirements of this Part of this Act as to experience; or

(b) being a national of any EEA State, holds one or more primary European qualifications,

is entitled to be registered under this section as a fully registered medical practitioner.

(2) Any person who—

(a) is not a national of an EEA State; but

(b) is, by virtue of a right conferred by article 11 of Regulation (EEC) No. 1612/68(1), or any other enforceable Community right, entitled to be treated, for the purposes of access to the medical profession, no less favourably than a national of such a State,

shall be treated for the purposes of subsection (1)(b) above as if he were such a national.

(3) In this Act—

“the EEA Agreement” means the Agreement on the European Economic Area signed at Oporto on 2nd May 1992 as adjusted by the Protocol signed at Brussels on 17th March 1993;

“EEA State” means a State which is a contracting party to the EEA Agreement.”

(2) After subsection (2) of section 5 of the Act (general functions of the Education Committee in relation to medical education in the United Kingdom) there is inserted—

“(2A) In making the determinations required by subsection (2) above, the Education Committee shall secure that the requirements of article 23 of Directive 93/16/EEC are satisfied.

(2B) The requirements of that article are that any person who fulfils the conditions mentioned in section 3(1)(a) above—

(a) will have acquired—

(i) adequate knowledge of the sciences on which medicine is based and a good understanding of the scientific methods including the principles of measuring biological functions, the evaluation of scientifically established facts and the analysis of data,

(ii) sufficient understanding of the structure, functions and behaviour of healthy and sick persons, as well as relations between the state of health and physical and social surroundings of the human being,

(iii) adequate knowledge of clinical disciplines and practices, providing him with a coherent picture of mental and physical diseases, of medicine from the points of view of prophylaxis, diagnosis and therapy and of human reproduction, and

(iv) suitable clinical experience in hospitals under appropriate supervision; and

(b) will have undergone medical training comprising at least a six-year course, or 5,500 hours of theoretical and practical instruction, which—

(i) was given in a university or under the supervision of a university, and

(ii) was open only to persons holding qualifications adequate for admission to university for such training.”

(3) In subsection (4) of that section, immediately before the definition of “the prescribed knowledge and skill” there is inserted—

• ““Directive 93/16/EEC” means Council Directive 93/16/EEC of 5 April 1993 to facilitate the free movement of doctors and the mutual recognition of their diplomas, certificates and other evidence of formal qualifications—

  (a)

  as adapted by paragraph 4(a) of Annex VII to the EEA Agreement, in which the primary medical qualifications awarded in EEA States are set out; and

  (b)

  as amended by the Act annexed to the Treaty relating to the accession of the Kingdom of Norway, the Republic of Austria, the Republic of Finland and the Kingdom of Sweden to the European Union, signed at Corfu on 24th June 1994(2), as adjusted by the Decision of the Council of the European Union of 1st January 1995 adjusting the instruments concerning the accession of new member States to the European Union(3);”.

(1)

The reference for Regulation (EEC) 1612/68 is OJ No L257, 19.10.68, p.1.

(2)

OJ No C241, 29.8.94, p.21. Norway did not ratify the Treaty.

(3)

OJ No L1, 1.1.95, p.1. See the Annex (XI)(D)(III)(1).