[ Act No. 2493, February 05, 1915 ]
AN ACT TO AMEND ACT NUMBERED THREE HUNDRED AND TEN, REGULATING THE PRACTICE IN THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS OF MEDICINE AND SURGERY IN ALL THEIR BRANCHES, TO REPEAL SECTION ONE OF ACT NUMBERED SIXTEEN HUNDRED AND THIRTY-TWO AND ACT NUMBERED SIXTEEN HUNDRED AND FIFTY-ONE, AND TO PROVIDE FOR THE EXAMINATION AND REGISTRATION OF NURSES IN THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS.
By authority of the United States, be it enacted by the Philippine Legislature, that:
Section 1. There is hereby created a Board for the Examination of Physicians. The Board shall consist of three physicians appointed by the Secretary of the Interior, upon Members, nomination by the Bureau of Health, who shall all be duly authorized to practice medicine in the Philippine Islands and shall be graduates of a legally chartered and reputable medical college or school and shall hold the degree of doctor or licentiate of medicine.
The members of the Board shall hold office for three consecutive years after their appointment: Provided, That no member of the faculty of any school, college, or university where any of the branches of the study of medicine is taught shall be eligible for appointment: And provided further, That the persons first appointed shall hold office for one, two, and three years, respectively, as specified in their respective certificates of appointment.
Each person appointed shall take and subscribe the following oath:
"I,........................................, having been pointed a member of the Board for the Examination of Physicians, swear that I am a physician duly qualified and graduated from the legally chartered medical college or university of ............................ in the city of ............................; that I am in good professional standing; that I will well and truly perform all the duties of said office; that I will faithfully account for all moneys coming into my hands as such officer; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the Government of the United States; and that I take this oath without any mental reservation whatsoever. So help me God."
This oath shall be recorded and filed in the central office of the Bureau of Health of the Philippine Islands. The Director of Health, with the approval of the Secretary of the Interior, may remove any member of said Board for continued neglect of duty, incompetency, or for unprofessional or dishonorable conduct, after having given the member concerned an opportunity to defend himself.
Section 2. The Examining Board shall appertain to the Bureau of Health so far as executive action may be required in connection therewith. It shall organize immediately after the appointment of its members, and annually thereafter on the anniversary of its first organization, or as nearly as practicable on the said date by electing from its members a president and a secretary-treasurer. The Board shall have a seal with which to attest its official acts. The members of the Board, with the exception of the secretary-treasurer, shall receive as compensation the members' sum of five pesos each for each candidate examined for registration as physician. The secretary-treasurer of the Board shall receive compensation at the rate of four hundred pesos per annum, one-half of which amount shall be paid on the thirtieth of June and one-half on the twenty-ninth of December of each year. The amounts due the members of the Examining Board for compensation shall be paid from Insular funds. A person rendering the Government services for a compensation may be appointed member of the Examining Board.
Section 3. The secretary-treasurer of the Board shall keep a record of the proceedings of the Board and a register of all persons to whom certificates of registration have been granted under the provisions of this Act, setting forth the name, age, sex, and place of birth of each, his place of business, his post-office address, the name of the medical college or university from which he graduated or in which he has studied, if any, and the date of such graduation or term of study, together with the time spent in the study of the profession elsewhere, the names of the countries where the institutions are located which have granted to him degrees or certificates of attendance upon clinics or lectures in medicine and surgery, and all other degrees granted to him from institutions of learning.
Section 4. The Board shall meet in the city of Manila, for the purpose of examining candidates desiring to practice medicine or surgery in the Philippine Islands, on the second Tuesdays of January, April, July, and October of each year after giving thirty days' written or printed notice of such meeting to each candidate who has filed his name and address with the secretary-treasurer of the Board.
Section 5. The Board shall issue certificates of registration for physicians.(awÞhi( Each certificate shall be issued, respectively, to the candidates who have passed the examination successfully. The certificate may also be issued to doctors and licentiates of medicine who, not being as yet lawfully registered and having practiced in the Philippine Islands before the promulgation of Act Numbered Three hundred and ten, have interrupted the same for some time, and who present to the Board for the Examination of Physicians their diplomas issued by a duly recognized medical school Foreign specialists or conege: Provided, That nothing in this section shall be construed to prohibit the employment of any foreigner as technical officer or professor in any branch of medicine or surgery in certain and determined specialties which may, in the judgment of the Government, be necessary and indispensable in the Philippine Islands: And provided finally, That section one of Act Numbered Sixteen hundred and thirty-two, entitled "An Act to authorize graduates of the Philippine Medical School who receive therefrom the degree of doctor of medicine to practice medicine and surgery in the Philippine Islands without taking the examination prescribed by Act Numbered Three hundred and ten, and to establish certain free scholarships in the Philippine Medical School to be awarded upon competitive examinations, and for other purposes," and Act Numbered Sixteen hundred and fifty-one, entitled "An Act to authorize graduates of certain schools of medicine and pharmacy in the Philippine Islands to practice medicine and surgery and pharmacy without taking the examinations prescribed by Acts Numbered Three hundred and ten and Five hundred and ninety-seven, respectively, and for other purposes," are hereby repealed, effective December thirty-first, nineteen hundred and nineteen. The secretary-treasurer of the Board shall Examination fee. collect a fee of fifty pesos from each candidate for each examination for registration.
The certificates of registration shall be signed by a majority of the members of the Board.
Section 6. No person shall practice medicine in any of its branches in the Philippine Islands without having previously obtained the proper certificate of registration issued as provided in sections four and five of this Act, which certificate shall be registered in the office of the register of deeds of the city of Manila or of a province of the Philippine Archipelago where such person desires to practice, upon payment of ten pesos, which shall be paid into the proper provincial treasury: Provided, That such registration shall be made only once. Nothing in this section shall be applicable to foreign physicians at present in practice Physicians in the Philippine Islands, and to those who have acquired the right to practice in the Philippine Islands under section three of Act Numbered Three hundred and ten: Provided further, That this section shall not be construed to make illegal the continuance as at present of the present cirujanos ministrantes or those who may graduate prior to January first, nineteen hundred and seventeen, after which date no further cirujanos ministrantes shall be authorized.
Section 7. Every person desiring to practice as a registered nurse in the Philippine Islands shall apply to the Director of Health for a certificate of registration as registered nurse. Applicants for such certificate shall be at least twenty years of age and shall submit evidence of good physical health and good moral character. They shall have been graduates of a recognized school of nursing, which has entrance requirements equal to graduates from the intermediate grades of the public school and which gives a two years and a half course of instruction in a hospital having at least thirty beds and a free dispensary, and active working departments in surgery, obstetrics, medicine, housekeeping, dietetics, pediatrics, and diseases of the eye, ear, nose, and throat. The applicant shall have had dormitory residence during the period of undergraduate instruction: Provided, That persons desiring to serve as unregistered nurses may practice as second-class nurses if they are graduates from intermediate grades of the public schools or from equivalent grades of any other school upon filing an application with the district health officer for the district within which they reside: And provided further, That the right to practice as such unregistered or second-class nurse may be refused to any person not of good moral character, or if already granted may be withdrawn by the said district health officer, on approval by the Director of Health, either for the said reason or for any abuse of the privilege: And provided further, That no second-class or unregistered nurse or other person not a registered first-class nurse may wear the nurse's uniform.
Section 8. On and after January first, nineteen hundred and fifteen, it shall be unlawful for any person to practice as a nurse in any of its branches in the Philippine Islands until the proper certificate of registration has been obtained.
Section 9. The Examining Board shall, on or before the thirty-first of December of each year, make a report to the Director of Health of its proceedings during the year, and of all moneys received and disbursed by it within that period.
Section 10. The subjects for the examinations provided for in section five of this Act shall be anatomy, physiology, chemistry, materia medica and therapeutics, pathology and bacteriology, hygiene, surgery, practice of medicine, obstetrics, tropical medicine, diseases of women and children, diseases of the nervous system, diseases of the eye, throat, and ear, and medical jurisprudence.
Section 11. The Board may refuse to issue any of the certificates provided for in this Act to an individual convicted by a court of competent jurisdiction of any offense involving immoral or dishonorable conduct. In case of such refusal, the reason therefor shall be stated to the applicant in writing. The Board may also revoke any such certificate temporarily or permanently for like cause, or for unprofessional conduct, after due notice to the person holding the certificate, and a hearing, subject to an appeal, to a board composed of five reputable physicians, one appointed by the Director of Health, one by the College of Medicine and Surgery of the University of the Philippines, one by the faculty of medicine of the University of Santo Tomas of Manila, one by the Philippine Islands Medical Association, and one by the Medico-Pharmaceutical College of the Philippine Islands or other associations of the Philippine Islands taking their place, the decision of which shall final: Provided, however, That this revocation of the license may be cancelled after five years, if the professional conduct of the person concerned has been exemplary and honorable, in which case, upon motion of the Director of Health or of a majority of the members of the Board, the proper certificate of qualifications shall be issued anew.
Section 12. Unless exempt from registration, no person shall practice medicine m any of its branches in the Philippine Islands without holding a proper certificate of registration from the Board of Medical Examiners.
A person shall be deemed to be practicing medicine, within the meaning of this Act, who shall, for compensation or reward, either direct or indirect, to himself or other person, treat, operate upon, prescribe, or advise for any human hurt, ailment, or disease, real or supposed, regardless of the nature of the remedy or treatment which is applied or recommended, or who shall represent himself, by means of signs, cards, advertisements or otherwise to be a physician or surgeon or specialist in any branch of medicine or surgery: Provided, however, That nothing herein shall be construed to interfere with the legitimate practice of dentistry or treatment by massage, nor to interfere with opticians who confine their business to the fitting and selling of glasses for visual defects only, nor to prevent anyone from receiving religious consolation or assistance: And provided, further, That nothing in this Act shall be construed to prohibit the rendering of services as physician in cases of emergency, or to apply to medical officers of the United States Army, the United States Navy, or the United States Public Health Service, or to physicians and surgeons from other countries called in consultation, or to medical students who are practicing medicine under the direct supervision of a duly registered medical man: And provided finally, That in cases of epidemics or in municipalities where there is no legally qualified practicing physician, or when the circumstances require it, in the interest of the public health, the Director of Health may issue special authorizations which shall not be valid for more! than three months, to all medical students who have completed the first three years of their studies, or to persons who have qualified in medicine, and to graduate or registered nurses, who may request it.
Section 13. Any person violating any provision shall, upon conviction, be punished by a fine of not more than three hundred pesos or by imprisonment for not more than ninety days, or both, in the discretion of the court.
Section 14. No person shall in any way advertise as a doctor, physician, or surgeon, or specialist in any of the branches of medicine and surgery or prefix or append the letters "Dr.," "M. D.," or "M. B.," who has not had duly conferred upon him, by diploma or degree from some college, school, or board of examiners legally empowered to confer the same, the right to assume said title; nor shall any person assume any title or prefix or append any letters to his name with the intent to represent falsely that he has receive a medical degree.
Section 15. All Acts or parts of Acts inconsistent with this Act are hereby repealed.
Section 16. This Act shall take effect on its passage.
Enacted, February 5, 1915.
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