Medical certificate

“ A reception order is valid for seven days from its date, unless the lunatic is certified by a medical man to be unfit for removal, when the order is extended until a medical certificate of fitness for removal is obtained, which is valid for three days.
The medical men signing the certificates must not be in partnership, as principal and assistant, or have any direct or indirect interest in the patient or his keeping (16 and 17 Vict. c. 96, sec. 4) . They must make separate visits at different times for the purpose of examination. ”

“ The medical certificate must contain a statement that it is expedient for the alleged lunatic to be placed forthwith under care, with reasons for making such statement. The certifying medical practitioner must have personally examined the patient not more than two clear days before his reception. In London and other large towns, where an expert opinion is readily obtainable, it is not expedient to resort to such urgency orders. Medical men should be careful how they sign certificates of insanity. ”

“ No certificate required from any physician or surgeon or medical practitioner is valid unless the signer be duly registered (ib., s. 28) .
A person not registered or licensed, and not actually employed as a physician or surgeon in Her Majesty’s naval or military service, practising physic, surgery, or midwifery for hire, gain, or hope of reward, forfeits twenty dollars for each day of such practice (ib., s. 29) . ”

“ For those which have respect to the health or to the illness of an individual there is no particular legal form, as a certificate is merely a simple statement of a fact. The only essential condition is that it contains the exact truth, and any departure from this will entail heavy penalties. A statement signed by a registered medical practitioner, distinctly describing the condition of A or B, is all that is necessary as far as the law in England is concerned. ”

“ If a graduate in medicine, he must present his diploma to the State Board of Health for verification as to its genuineness. If the diploma is found genuine, and from a legally chartered medical institution in good standing, and if the person named therein be the person claiming and presenting the same, the board must issue a certificate conclusive as to his right to practise medicine. If not a graduate, the person must present [154] himself before the said board and submit to examination, and if the examination is satisfactory the board must issue certificate (Laws 1887, p. 225, s. 1) . ”

“ Any person applying for registration must produce and exhibit before the clerk a license from the board of medical examiners, or make oath that he was practising medicine or surgery in this State prior to March 7th, 1885, and thereupon the clerk shall register the date, with the name and residence of the applicant, and shall issue a certificate of registration. The certificate entitles the recipient to practise in any county in the State, but if he removes his residence to another county he must exhibit his certificate to the clerk of such county and be registered. ”

“ Every unrevoked certificate and indorsement of registration is presumptive evidence that the person named is legally registered. No person can register any authority to practise medicine unless issued or indorsed as a license by the regents. No such registration is valid unless the authority registered constituted at the time of registration a license under the laws of the State then in force. ”

“ In order to ensure that medical certificates genuinely reflect seafarers' state of health, in light of the duties they are to perform, the competent authority shall, after consultation with the shipowners' and seafarers' organizations concerned, and giving due consideration to applicable international guidelines referred to in Part B of this Code, prescribe the nature of the medical examination and certificate.
3. This Standard is without prejudice to the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers, 1978, as amended (STCW) . ”

“ A person engaging in the practice of medicine or surgery must be of good moral character, twenty-one years of age, and a graduate of some reputable college of medicine and surgery that requires for graduation not less than two courses of lectures, each in a different year (ib., s. 2) .
Before engaging in practice, such person must exhibit his diploma to some county clerk of the State and have it recorded. The clerk must give him a certificate of record, which may be attached to the diploma (ib., s. 3) . ”

“ Any individual who is issued a medical certificate by a medical practitioner with a valid practising certificate, certifying that the individual has acute respiratory symptoms must not leave the individual’s place of accommodation for a period of 5 days starting on the day the medical certificate is issued. ”

“ Unregistered Persons.—No person is entitled to recover a charge for medical or surgical advice or attendance or the performance of any operation or any medicine prescribed or supplied unless he produces to the court a certificate that he is registered ”

“ No person who shall have commenced the practice of medicine or surgery since January 1st, 1885, or who shall hereafter commence the practice of the same, shall practise as a physician or surgeon for compensation without having obtained a certificate and caused it to be recorded. ”

“ Internees shall, for preference, have the attention of medical personnel of their own nationality.
Internees may not be prevented from presenting themselves to the medical authorities for examination. The medical authorities of the Detaining Power shall, upon request, issue to every internee who has undergone treatment an official certificate showing the nature of his illness or injury, and the duration and nature of the treatment given. A duplicate of this certificate shall be forwarded to the Central Agency provided for in Article 140. ”

“ Do not send written certificates [Pg 20] to third persons as to the result of the examination, unless (1) In an open envelope, having read the certificate to the patient who takes it to its destination; (2) After having received the written consent of the patient so to do.
The payment of the fee by a third person does not absolve from the rule of professional secrecy.
The symptoms and feelings of a patient are sometimes admitted as (hearsay) testimony from a medical witness, especially where the former is dead. Letters from a patient to a medical man containing such statements are not allowed. ”

“ The New York Federation of Women's Clubs has lately taken action on the subject; passing resolutions urging in this state an amendment to the Domestic Relations law requiring every marriage certificate to be accompanied by a medical certificate also, certifying the applicant to be free from contagious disease. This is already required in several western states. It seems a simple and righteous proposition. If a man wishes to join the army or navy, or to have his life insured, he has to pass a physical examination, and is refused if he is unfit. ”

“ The registration must be accompanied by visitation. The appointed medical registrar must be a witness to the fact he is called upon to register; and a case once registered should be visited at least once in three months, until recovery or death takes place, when in either case the return of the patient as a lunatic would be cancelled under a certificate to the fact supplied by the registrar. These remarks apply specially where patients are placed out singly. ”

“ The certificate may be given to a qualified medical practitioner only after the committee, by a majority of its members and at a meeting where the woman's case has been reviewed, has authorized the giving of the certificate. Subsection (5) empowers the Minister of Health of a province to require a therapeutic abortion committee to furnish copies of certificates issued by the committee and such other information relating to the issuing of the certificate as he may require, and gives the Minister power to require similar information from a medical practitioner who has procured an abortion. ”

“ The more formal duty of sending to the Medical Officer of Health a certificate stating the name of the patient, the situation of the building, and the infectious disease from which in his opinion the patient is suffering, is imposed on every medical practitioner attending on, or called in, to visit the patient, on becoming aware that the patient is suffering from an infectious disease to which this Act applies. ”

“ Where the court is, or the police are, in doubt as to the exact age of the person by whom an offence is alleged to have been committed, the certificate of a Government Medical Officer to the effect that, in his opinion, the person has or has not attained a specified age may be given in evidence. ”

“ A person desiring to effect an insurance on his life usually procures from the office in which he proposes to insure a blank form, containing a series of interrogatories, all of which must be answered in writing by the applicant. To these answers must be appended the certificate of his usual medical attendant as to his present and general state of health, with a like certificate from an intimate personal friend. The party is then subjected to an examination by the medical examiner of the company, and, if the application is in all respects satisfactory, a policy is issued. ”

“ Persons having a temporary license are not entitled to register but may practise so long as the license is in force (Act of 1889, c. 181, s. 4, as amended Act of 1891, c. 420) .
Penalty, Exceptions.—To practise without registration and a certificate is a misdemeanor punishable with a fine of from $25 to $100 or imprisonment for each offence, but this act does not apply to women pursuing the avocation of midwife nor to reputable physicians or surgeons residing in a neighboring State coming into the State for consultation with a registered physician of this State (Act of 1889, c. 181, s. 5) . ”

“ Any person practising (except persons in actual practice as before mentioned) without a Certificate shall for every such offence forfeit Twenty pounds, and Assistants (except as aforesaid) Five pounds. And no Apothecary shall be allowed to recover any charges claimed by him in any court of law, unless he shall prove that he was in practice on or before the first of August 1815, or that he has obtained his Certificate. Persons refused a Certificate to practise may apply again. [130] The Master, Wardens, &c. ”

“ Where the deceased has been attended during his last illness by a registered medical practitioner, such medical practitioner must sign and deliver to one of the persons required to give information concerning the death, a certificate stating, to the best of his knowledge and belief, the cause of death, which certificate must be delivered to the registrar by such person on giving information concerning the death. ”

“ This branch of the law is also important to the faculty, as they must frequently be called upon to justify the medical certificates which the insurance offices uniformly require before they issue a policy, and it continually involves the very nice question as to what shall or shall not be considered a disease tending to shorten, or endanger life. ”

“ The standard of preliminary requirements for entrance to the medical schools is being gradually raised, and a large number of the states demand a certificate of a high school education, while the colleges comprising the Association of Medical Colleges, which numbers more than half the American medical schools, accept as an entrance standard a certificate of at least one year's study at a high school. ”

“ The main and vital point, compulsory removal, is altogether omitted, it being merely made lawful for the governor, on the certificate of a district surgeon or any other medical practitioner to the effect that a man or woman is a leper and the disease communicable, to authorize his or her removal, but no order is inserted in the ordinance that all lepers shall be brought before the district surgeon for such certificate, and that such certificate shall be acted upon. ”

“ In those States in which by law only properly qualified medical men, as determined by examination, have the right to practice, to hold medical office, or to furnish medical certificates, the State certainly is entitled to require of all physicians thus registered and authoritatively recommended to the people as competent, that they shall furnish, free of charge, certificates of the cause of death in those cases where they are cognizant of such cause. ”

“ All persons who have made the practice of medicine and surgery their profession or business continuously for ten years, and can furnish satisfactory evidence thereof to the State medical examiners, shall receive a license to continue (ib., s. 3,550) .
Examinations of persons not graduates are made by the State board, wholly or partly in writing, in anatomy, physiology, chemistry, pathology, surgery, obstetrics, and practice of medicine (exclusive of materia medica and therapeutics) (ib., s. 3,553) . ”

“ It is rather absurd to swear that one is not an imbecile, and a physician's certificate, as required by a law passed by the last Colorado legislature, is a better guard against communicable disease than a statement of the patient. ”