Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Section 36 of the Medical Practitioners Act addresses areas of overlap between the practice of medicine and other health professions. Under existing legislation, where a person holds a dual qualification in medicine and another health professions, for example, dentistry, this section allows them to lawfully practice those areas of dentistry which overlap with medicine without having to be on the register of medical practitioners.

Section 37 provides that a person must be registered with the Medical Council in order to practice medicine in the State. The amendment clarifies that the requirements of section 37 do not apply to a person registered as a dentist, nurse or so on who was practising medicine when carrying out tasks in the context of the other specified health profession. This amendment, recommended by the Office of the Attorney General, makes clear that a person, irrespective of whether they are a medical practitioner, is not unlawfully practising medicine when carrying out tasks in the context of the other specified health profession and so they are not contravening section 37 of the Medical Practitioners Act.

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