A NEW MEDICAL REGISTRATION ACT planned by Government will remove some of the public’s concern about getting justice when making complaints about doctors.
Minister of Health Donville Inniss gave this assurance yesterday, while delivering the weekly lecture at the Democratic Labour Party’s (DLP) Belleville, St Michael headquarters.
Inniss said the Barbados Medical Council, which deals with complaints, will for the first time have non-medical members when the old act is revamped.
“I believe that this should help to avoid a lot of the accusations of self-serving and what not,” he told the gathering.
“I found it quite uncharitable to all involved to have a Medical Council comprised only of doctors,” he admitted.
“To my mind that does not allow for transparency and I have taken a policy position in the Ministry of Health that all of our councils must not seem to be self-serving and must have representatives from outside of their profession serving on the councils.”
Inniss said that “after 17 years of talk”, a new Medical Registration Bill would soon be going to the House of Assembly for debate.
Changes were needed because “management, registration, licensing and discipline of doctors in the past cannot take this sector forward,” he argued.
One of the changes is that doctors can now register as specialists in areas such as dermatology, obstetrics and surgery, while at present “everybody is pretty much registered as a general practitioner,” according to Inniss. (TY)