Posted in Legislative Research on Sep 04, 2019

On 15th of August, the bill was presumably submitted by the Ministry of Health and Sports (unconfirmed).

Current status (02/09/2019): the bill is likely to go to the Pyithu Hluttaw for discussion (unconfirmed).

Bill in brief

The amendment bill introduces the opportunity to reapply for medical practitioner registration after it has been revoked.

Summary of main provisions

There are three areas of amendments in the bill.

  • The first deals with terms and definitions. For the term “Medical Science”, the phrase “relieving the suffering” is added. “Limited General Practitioner Licence” and “Limited Special Medical Practitioner Licence” have been replaced with “Separate General Practitioner Licence” and “Separate Special Medical Practitioner Licence”. Furthermore, when forming the Medical Council (MC), the “Department of Development and Management of Medical Human Resources” is replaced with the “Department of Health Human Resources”, and similarly the “heads of the Department of Health of the Union Territory, Region and State” is replaced with “heads of the Department of Medical Services of the Union Territory, Region and State”.

  • The second area is concerned with the formation of a Steering Committee (SC), the number of MC members and its regular meetings. According to this bill, the SC can participate in the MC meeting and provide advice. The MC membership is increased from 65 to 75, in which the number of retired and respected medical practitioners rises from 7 to 15. Meetings of the council will every four months, change from the current three-monthly basis.

  • The third area deals with the reapplication of registration certificates after having been revoked. The original law has said that a registered medical practitioner could have registration revoked use of prohibited drugs, violation of offense and the absence of ethics, but without any clause about reapplication. However, this amendment bill claims that doctors might wish to reapply after acknowledging and rectifying past mistakes and in this case the council would reconsider to issue the registration certificate.

Other relevant legislation

The University Education Law of 1973

Myanmar Medical Degree, Diploma and Certificates Bill 2019

Links

Bill text - https://pyidaungsu.hluttaw.mm/uploads/pdf/MQZbg0_20190814.docx.pdf

Myanmar Medical Council - https://www.facebook.com/myanmarmedicalcouncil/

Myanmar Medical Association - https://www.mmacentral.org/

World Medical Association - https://www.wma.net/

Contact

Moe Aung, The Ananda, moeaung@theananda.org