Medical Practitioners Act 2007

Visiting EEA practitioners providing services on temporary and occasional basis.

50.— (1) Subject to subsections (2) and (7), a medical practitioner who is a national of a Member State and lawfully established in medical practice in a Member State (by virtue of being registered or licensed to practise medicine by a competent authority of a Member State that is the last-mentioned Member State’s equivalent to the Council) may, on visiting the State—

(a) practise medicine on a temporary and occasional basis without first being registered, and

(b) advertise the practitioner’s services as a medical practitioner for the purposes of paragraph (a).

(2) Subject to subsection (4), a visiting EEA practitioner shall, before practising medicine in the State and thereafter on an annual basis, give to the Council a declaration in writing—

(a) giving particulars of the medical services to be rendered and the period or periods in which the practitioner expects to render them, and

(b) accompanied by the following documents in the case of the first such declaration (and thereafter only if there is a material change in the situation substantiated by such documents):

(i) proof of the nationality of the practitioner; and

(ii) an attestation from the relevant competent authority (being the authority or body designated by the Member State concerned as competent for the purposes of Article 56 of Directive 2005/36/EC) certifying that the practitioner is—

(I) lawfully established in a Member State for the purpose of practising medicine, and

(II) not prohibited from practising medicine, even temporarily, at the moment of delivering the attestation.

(3) The Council may, in respect of a visiting EEA practitioner who has made a declaration pursuant to subsection (2), request any competent authority of the Member State in which the practitioner is established as mentioned in subsection (2)(b)(ii)(I), for each provision of medical services specified in the declaration, to provide any information relevant to the legality of the practitioner’s establishment and the practitioner’s good conduct and the absence of any disciplinary or criminal sanctions of a professional nature.

(4) A visiting EEA practitioner may give to the Council the documents referred to in subsection (2)(b) after the practitioner has rendered any medical services specified in a declaration referred to in subsection (2) given by the practitioner to the Council where the provision of those services was urgently required but, in any case, not more than 15 days after the date on which the services were provided.

(5) The temporary and occasional nature of the proposed provision of medical services by a visiting EEA practitioner shall be assessed by the Council on a case by case basis, in particular in relation to its duration, its frequency, its regularity and its continuity.

(6) Where a visiting EEA practitioner complies with the requirements of subsection (2), the Council shall—

(a) register the practitioner in the Visiting EEA Practitioners Division, and

(b) enter in the register the particulars referred to in subsection (2)(a) contained in the practitioner’s declaration made pursuant to subsection (2).

(7) A visiting EEA practitioner shall not practise medicine in the State otherwise than in accordance with a declaration made by the practitioner under subsection (2)(a) or in a case of urgency.