The European Specialist Medical Qualifications Amendment Regulations 1997

Statutory Instruments

1997 No. 2928

MEDICAL PROFESSION

The European Specialist Medical Qualifications Amendment Regulations 1997

Made

9th December 1997

Laid before Parliament

10th December 1997

Coming into force

31st December 1997

The Secretary of State, being designated for the purposes of, and in exercise of the powers conferred by, section 2(2) of the European Communities Act 1972(1) and in exercise of all other powers enabling him in that behalf, hereby makes the following Regulations:—

Citation and commencement

1.  These Regulations may be cited as the European Specialist Medical Qualifications Amendment Regulations 1997 and shall come into force on 31st December 1997.

Amendment of the European Specialist Medical Qualifications Order 1995

2.—(1) The European Specialist Medical Qualifications Order 1995(2) shall be amended in accordance with the following provisions of this regulation.

(2) In article 2(1)(b) (interpretation), at the end, insert “, and by Council Directive 97/50/EC of 6 October 1997(3)”.

(3) In article 6 (certificates of completion of specialist training)—

(a) in paragraph (1), after “subject to paragraphs (2),”, insert “(2A),”; and

(b) after paragraph (2), insert—

“(2A) A CCST may be awarded only to a person who has been appointed to a course of training intended to lead to the award of a CCST and has successfully completed that course of training.”.

(4) In article 12 (existing specialists)—

(a) in paragraph (1)—

(i) for “1st January 1998”, substitute “1st December 1998”, and

(ii) after “satisfies him”, insert “, then or, in the case of a person who falls within paragraph (2C), before 1st December 2001”;

(b) in paragraph (2)(c)(ii), for the words after “in such a specialty”, substitute “which, together with any experience which he has in the specialty in question and any further training which he has undertaken at the recommendation of the STA under paragraph (2B), give him a level of expertise equivalent to the level of expertise he might reasonably be expected to have attained if he had a CCST in that specialty.”; and

(c) after paragraph (2), insert—

“(2A) The STA shall, before 1st November 1998, determine, in respect of each person who applies to it before 1st April 1998 for the purposes of sub-paragraph (c) of paragraph (2), whether or not it is satisfied as mentioned in that sub-paragraph.

(2B) Until 1st November 1998, the STA may, for the purposes of paragraph (2)(c)(ii), recommend that a person undertake such further training in the medical specialty in question, not exceeding twelve months in duration, as the STA consider is required to give that person a level of expertise equivalent to the level of expertise he might reasonably be expected to have attained if he had a CCST in that specialty.

(2C) A person falls within this paragraph if the STA has made a recommendation under paragraph (2B) that he undertake further training for the purposes of paragraph (2)(c)(ii).”.

(5) In Schedule 1 (which lists the bodies which appoint members of the Specialist Training Authority of the medical Royal Colleges), in paragraph 2 of Part I, after the entry for the Royal College of Ophthalmologists, insert—

“Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health”.

(6) In Schedule 2 (which lists medical specialties in which qualifications are awarded in the United Kingdom)—

(a) in Part I, for the entries specified in column 1 below, substitute the corresponding entry in column 2 below—

Column 1	Column 2
Existing entry	New entry
General medicine*	General medicine* (also known as general (internal) medicine)
Diagnostic radiology (also known as radiology)	Diagnostic radiology (also known as clinical radiology and formerly known as radiology)
Geriatrics	Geriatrics (also known as geriatric medicine)
Psychiatry* (also known as mental illness)	Psychiatry* (also known as general psychiatry or general adult psychiatry and formerly known as mental illness)
Renal disease (also known as nephrology)	Renal disease (also known as renal medicine and formerly known as nephrology)
Otolaryngology*	Otolaryngology* (also known as ENT surgery); and

(b) In Part II, for “Mental handicap”, substitute “Psychiatry of learning disability”.

Frank Dobson

One of Her Majesty’s Principal Secretaries of State,

Department of Health

9th December 1997

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations amend the European Specialist Medical Qualifications Order 1995 (“the 1995 Order”), which implemented European obligations contained principally in Council Directive 93/16/EEC relating to the training of specialist doctors and mutual recognition of their qualifications.

Article 6 of the 1995 Order is amended to clarify that a certificate of completion of specialist training (“CCST”) may be awarded only to a person who has been appointed to, and successfully completed, a course of specialist training intended to lead to the award of a CCST.

Article 12 is amended to extend to 1st December 1998 the period within which existing specialists may apply to have their names included in the specialist register. The Specialist Training Authority of the medical Royal Colleges (“the STA”) is required to undertake assessments of existing specialists, who apply to it for that purpose by 1st April 1998, no later than 1st November 1998. New provisions allow the STA to take account of experience and additional training as well as qualifications, when assessing whether a doctor has the requisite expertise, and the STA may recommend a period of further training of up to twelve months for this purpose. A doctor to whom such a recommendation is made may apply to have his name included in the specialist register by 1st December 1998 and will be entitled to inclusion in the register if he satisfies the STA as to knowledge and skill before 1st December 2001.

The Schedules to the 1995 Order are amended to allow the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health to appoint a member of the STA and to reflect a change in the name by which certain medical specialties in which qualifications are awarded in the UK are known.

(1)

1972 c. 68. See S.I. 1995/3207, which designates the Secretary of State for the purposes of section 2(2) in relation to measures relating to the access to, the training for, the pursuit of and the award of qualifications in (amongst others) medicine and its specialties.

(2)

S.I. 1995/3208.

(3)

OJ. No. L 921, 24.10.97, p. 35.