In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

7 The Question ofProfessional Recognition ONE BURNING issue over the years since the first two graduates passed out in 1892 (one, it is trite knowledge, being Sun Yat-sen) was the standing of the College's licence. It was not a qualification which was recognized according to English law at that time and the Medical Registration Ordinance of 1884 was not amended to take account of it. Since the early licentiates were Chinese, there was no need for them to register as, under the terms of that Ordinance, they could carryon their practice without the benefits of registration in any event. But recognition by the United Kingdom General Medical Council and registrability remained live issues and, when the University came into being and with it the Faculty of Medicine and a medical degree, the General Medical Council straightaway recognized the degree and the University's medical graduates (the first of whom emerged in 1914) were eligible for registration. The Hong Kong law was amended in 1914 to take this into account and the unregistered practice of medicine by Chinese was restricted to Chinese traditional medicine. It might be noted here that not all of the licentiates of the old College were Chinese - the name had been changed from the 'Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese' to simply the 'Hong Kong College of Medicine' some years previously. Some were of Indian origin and, indeed, the University's first medical graduate was Eurasian though he always seems to have been treated as Chinese. When the Hong Kong College of Medicine was inaugurated in 1887, the organization of what we would now regard as the modem medical profession was in its infancy. This was true not only in terms of organization and control as such but also in terms of the emergence of modern scientific medicine and medical education. Just three years before the opening of the Hong Kong College of Medicine, the first statute regulating the practice of medicine in Hong Kong had been passed. This was the Medical Registration Ordinance of 1884 (Ordinance No.6 of 1884) and this was, somewhat belatedly, dependent upon The Medical Act 1858 of the United Kingdom. A point which cannot be made too strongly is that the profession was evolving at this time not only in terms of the science of medicine but also in terms of the scientific 40 Constancy ofPurpose education of medical practitioners. The foundation of the Hong Kong College of Medicine comes, therefore, at a very strategic point in the history of both the evolution of the modern profession and education for it. As has been said, the Medical Registration Ordinance was dependent upon the Medical Act of 1858 in the United Kingdom. That Act had two important aspects: 'First, it established what is now known as the General Medical Council and, secondly, it defined those qualifications which were acceptable according to the tenets of the time to enable a person to call himself a "doctor" or the like and offer his services as such. The General Medical Council is, of course, still with us and the standards which it has expected have had a dominating influence within the Commonwealth. As a prelude to the question of the recognition of the Hong Kong College of Medicine licentiate, what was required under the Medical Act 1858 and the the Medical Registration Ordinance 1884? ' The Medical Act 1858 was of seminal importance and came within the the same era as other legislation creating and controlling the modern professions in the United Kingdom. Hitherto, the medical profession had been regulated by a diverse number of bodies in different parts of the United Kingdom. These are listed in Schedule A to the Act and they were: the Royal College of Physicians of London, the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, The King's and Queen's College of Physicians of Ireland, the Royal College of Surgeons of England, the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, the Society of Apothecaries, London, and the Apothecaries Hall, Dublin. There were also two residual classes of person given privileges under this Act: of perhaps minor importance in the former class were doctorates granted prior to the passing of the Act by the Archbishop of Canterbury but of much more importance and of significance to Hong Kong was a medical degree of a United Kingdom university. The question was ultimately to be whether the degree later...

Share