Delaware General Assembly


CHAPTER 86 - MEDICAL COUNCIL OF DELAWARE

AN ACT TO AMEND CHAPTER 27 OF THE REVISED CODE OF DELAWARE, 1935, RELATING TO THE MEDICAL COUNCIL OF DELAWARE.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Delaware in General Assembly met:

Section 1. That 920. Sec. 8, 921. Sec. 9, 922. Sec. 10, 924. Sec. 12, 925. Sec. 13, 926. Sec. 14, and 931. Sec. 19, of Chapter 27, of the Revised Code of Delaware, 1935, be and the same are hereby amended to read as follows:

920. Sec. 8. Expenses, How Paid; Surplus, How Disposed of:--From the fees provided by this Chapter the Medical Council shall pay, not to exceed said income, all proper expenses incurred by its provisions; and if any surplus above said expenses shall remain at the end of any year, it shall be apportioned among said medical Boards pro rata according to the number of candidates examined by each.

0. Sec. 9. Meetings of Boards; Organization; Officers; Quorum; Examination Committee:--An annual meeting of each of the examining boards, respectively, shall be held on the second Tuesday of July. At such meeting of each of the boards, respectively, an organization shall be effected by the election from their own membership of a president and secretary, for the purpose of examining applicants for certificate for license. Each of said Boards of Medical Examiners shall hold one or more stated or special meetings in each year, due notice of which shall be made public at such times and places as they may determine. At said stated or special meetings a majority of the members of either board shall constitute a quorum thereof, but the examination may be conducted by a committee duly authorized by said boards.

1. Sec. 10. Questions for Examination; How Determined:--Each Board of Medical Examiners, not less than one week prior to such examination, shall submit to the Medical Council of Delaware questions for thorough examinations in anatomy, physiology, hygiene, chemistry, surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, pathology, diagnosis, therapeutics, practice of medicine and materia medica.

924. Sec. 12. Certificates; Medical Council to Issue; When Refused or Revoked; To Whom Issued Without Usual Examination; Record of:--On receiving from either of said Boards of Medical Examiners such official report of the examination of any applicant for certificate for license, the Medical Council shall issue forthwith to each applicant who shall have been returned as having successfully passed the examination, a certificate to that effect.

The Medical Council of Delaware may refuse to issue a certificate for a license to practice medicine and surgery or may cancel or revoke a certificate issued for a license to practice medicine or surgery for the following causes, to-wit:

Material misrepresentation of facts in the application; chronic and persistent inebriety; the practice of criminal abortion; conviction of a crime involving moral turpitude or for publicly advertising special ability to treat or cure chronic incurable diseases, or where any person shall present to the said Medical Council any diploma, license or certificate that shall have been illegally obtained or that shall have been signed or issued unlawfully or under fraudulent representations; in complaints for violating the provisions of this Section, the accused person shall be furnished with a copy of the complaint and given a hearing before the said Medical Council in person or by attorney.

Applicants examined and licensed by State Examining and Licensing Boards of other States, or applicants examined and approved by the National Board of Medical Examiners and who also shall have engaged in active practice in the State from which they apply for a period of at least two consecutive years, upon the payment of One Hundred Dollars to the Treasurer of the Medical Council of Delaware, and on filing with the Secretary of said Medical Council a copy of his or her license or certificate certified to by the Secretary of such Board, showing also that. the standard of requirements of the said Board at the time the said license or certificate was issued, was substantially the same as that required by the said Medical Council of Delaware, and of his or her affidavit as to the personality thereof, may be granted a certificate for a license to practice medicine and surgery by the said Medical Council upon the recommendation of the said Boards of Medical Examiners, without further examination thereby.

The Medical Council shall keep a record of all certificates, when and to whom issued.

925. Sec. 13. Candidates; Qualifications; Order for Examination; Second Examination; Graduates Prior to July 1st, 1901, Qualifications; Graduates Prior to July 1st, 1896, Qualifications; Fees:--Any person not authorized to practice medicine and surgery in this State, and desiring to enter upon such practice, shall deliver to the Secretary of the Medical Council, upon. the payment of a fee of Twenty-five Dollars, a written application for examination, together with satisfactory proof that the applicant is more than twenty-one years of age; is of good moral character, has completed a standard four-year high-school course, and completed two years of acceptable college work, including English, physics, chemistry, biology, and one foreign language; and has received a diploma conferring the degree of Doctor of Medicine from some legally incorporated medical college which in the opinion of the Medical Council was in good standing at the time of the issuing of the said diploma, and shall have served as an interne for one year in a hospital approved by the Medical Council. Applicants who have received their degree in medicine after the passage of this Act, must have pursued the study of medicine for at least twenty-eight months, prior to the granting of said degree, in some legally incorporated medical college or colleges, approved by the Medical Council. Such proof shall be made upon affidavit. Upon the making of said payment and proof, the Medical Council shall issue to said applicant an order for examination before such one of the State Board of Medical Examiners as the applicant for certificate may select. In case of failure at any such examination, the candidate, after the expiration of one year and within two years, shall have the privilege of a second examination by the same Board to which application was first made, without the payment of an additional fee, but if after six months and before two years from such examination, said application be withdrawn, the said Twenty-five Dollars shall upon demand be returned. Provided that applicants for license who graduated prior to July 1, A. D. 1901, and have been in continuous and reputable practice for at least five years since graduation, may be admitted to the examinations of one of said Boards, upon certified and satisfactory evidence of good moral character, of three courses of medical lectures in different calendar years, and of a competent academic education, according to the requirements of that time; and provided further, that applicants for license who graduated prior to July 1, A. D. 1896, and have been in continuous and reputable practice for at least ten years, may be admitted to the examination of one of said Boards upon certified and satisfactory evidence of good moral character, of two courses of medical lectures, in different calendar years, and of a competent academic education according to the requirements at that time.

No application will be accepted, either for examination or reciprocity, from a graduate of a foreign medical college, unless said applicant has acquired full American citizenship; has obtained a degree from an American medical college acceptable to the Medical Council; has served one year as an interne in an American hospital acceptable to the Medical Council; and has resided in the State of Delaware for at least one year. Exceptions to these qualifications may only be made on unanimous vote of the Medical Council.

926. Sec. 14. Practicing Medicine Without License, Unlawful; Temporary License; to Whom; Fee:--It shall not be lawful for any person to practice medicine or surgery in this State without having obtained a license therefor as hereinafter provided. But a temporary license, of not less than two weeks nor more than four months, may be granted to a resident and legally qualified physician of another State to take charge of the practice of a resident and legally qualified physician of this State, during the latter's temporary illness or absence from this State, upon the written request of a physician residing in this State, and the payment to the Secretary of the Medical Council of a fee of Five Dollars for the use of said Council, and when such temporary license is so issued, the physician receiving such license shall have the right to practice medicine in the State of Delaware, for the time specified in said temporary license.

931. Sec. 19. Osteopaths; Examination of; License To:--Any practitioner of the system, method or science of treating diseases of the human body commonly called osteopathy, who is now authorized by the Laws of this State to practice osteopathy in this State, is authorized to continue in such practice without further conforming to, and notwithstanding any of the provisions of this Chapter, upon such practitioner of osteopathy paying to the State, the State license tax prescribed by law for physicians. All other persons proposing to practice osteopathy in this State shall be examined by the Medical Council and some reputable practitioner in Osteopathy in this State to be designated by the Medical Council; and provided further that all such future applicants to so practice shall be examined only upon such questions as shall be selected by the Medical Council and such selected associated practitioner of Osteopathy in anatomy, physiology, hygiene, chemistry, obstetrics and gynecology, pathology, diagnosis, surgery, practice, and principles of Osteopathy, and shall satisfy said Medical Council and such selected associated practitioner of Osteopathy that before beginning the study of Osteopathy, each such applicant has received a diploma from a high school, and that each such applicant has given sufficient study to and has been sufficiently instructed in the subjects last above enumerated. Any person who is the holder of a diploma regularly issued by any legally chartered and regularly conducted school of Osteopathy which maintains a course of study in hours, subjects and terms equal to the hours, subjects and terms maintained by the Association of Osteopathic Colleges, who has been in personal attendance as a student in such legally chartered and regularly conducted school for at least four years, for terms of not less than nine months in each year before graduation, and who shall be of good moral character, shall be eligible to such examination, notwithstanding any of the provisions of this Chapter. Upon successfully passing said examination the applicant to practice osteopathy shall be entitled to receive, and shall receive from said Medical Council, an appropriate certificate entitling him to practice as an Osteopathic physician in this State. The State Tax Commissioner shall, upon the payment of the amount of the State license fee prescribed by law for physicians, issue to any practitioner of Osteopathy authorized by law to practice Osteopathy in this State and to any such person who shall present to him such certificate of the Medical Council, a license signed by the State Tax Commissioner, certifying that such person is authorized to practice as an Osteopathic physician in this State conformably to the Laws thereof. Any person practicing Osteopathy without such a license shall be subject to the penalties provided for in this Chapter. Applicants for examination shall pay the same fees as are required by this Chapter to be paid by applicants to practice medicine and surgery in this State. A certificate issued for a license to practice Osteopathy may be revoked by the Medical Council for the same causes and under the same procedure that certificates to practice medicine or surgery may be revoked under this Chapter.

Approved April 30, 1937.