Garth Rattray
Medical and paramedical councils safeguard and maintain the integrity, cohesiveness, ethics and professional standards of organisations/bodies dedicated to the care and well-being of our people.
These councils, like the Medical, Nursing, Pharmacy and the Council for Professions Supplementary to Medicine (CPSM), not only protect their members from exploitation by charlatans and substandard and/or unethical practitioners, they also protect the public/patients from harm by constantly regulating and monitoring medicine and its allied professions.
The CPSM is an executive body by statute that falls under the Ministry of Health. It was appointed in accordance to the Professions Supplementary to Medicine Act (1965) and is meant to: "(a) Regulate the training of students in the specified professions; (b) Register members of the specified professions; and, (c) Ensure the maintenance of proper standards of conduct on the specified professions registered under the act".
Professions covered
The professions currently covered by this umbrella organisation are: Medical laboratory technicians, radiographers, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, medical dieticians/nutritionists, speech pathologists, public health inspectors, nutrition assistants, dietetic assistants and audiologists.
All medical and paramedical professionals are required (by law) to register with their various councils upon completion of their training (including internship). They must also renew their practising licences (re-register) every year (or every other year in the case of nurses) in order to practice. Pharmacy, medical, and nursing councils have gone one step further and amended their governing acts (in 2003, 2004, and 2005 respectively) to stipulate that their members must complete a minimum number of Continuing Education (CE) hours in order to be re-registered/re-licensed.
The CPSM carries out the same duties and responsibilities as the medical, nursing and pharmacy councils but the amendment to the CPSM Act, requiring CEs as a prerequisite for re-registration and therefore practice, has not yet become law.
The CPSM has several daunting problems. It stands to be swamped by requests to assist several groups (cytologists, sonagraphers, EKG technicians and alternative medical practitioners) whose members do not meet the current standards for registration.
This organisation (staffed by concerned, hard-working, sacrificial, mostly voluntary individuals) is minimally funded by a small subvention from the government and must therefore depend heavily on registration and re-registration fees to exist. Unfortunately, although it is illegal for paramedical professionals to practise without being re-registered, many take advantage of the persuasive approach and flout the law by refusing to comply, claiming that they don't see the relevance of the CPSM.
Confusion
Additionally, confusion abounds. Many of the professionals believe that they must pay a fee to have designated individuals within their specialty verify the authenticity and relevance of their CEs and then pay the CPSM for re-registration. Others have somehow been misled into believing that they cannot re-register without CE's when this is not currently the case.
Consequently, the CPSM is experiencing considerable cash flow problems. It has already dipped into its meagre reserves to meet expenses. It is therefore critical that all qualified members of the specified professions register/re-register with the CPSM. The council, through its regulating and monitoring functions, is essential to protect the integrity of the professions and ensure the safety of the public seeking their services now and in the future when the CARICOM Single Market requires the CPSM to ratify qualifications for itinerant paramedical professionals.
Dr. Garth A. Rattray is a medical doctor with a family practice.
