The Department of Health is examining whether it can bring forward a section of its draft Medical Practitioners Bill in order to close off a loophole exposed by the use of a controversial cancer treatment by an unregistered doctor.
Mr William Porter, Killaloe, Co Clare, has been treating terminally-ill cancer patients with a type of photodynamic therapy (PDT) despite research demonstrating a poor outcome for many of the 48 people he has treated.
Mr Porter, who has been struck off in California for gross negligence, had chosen not to register as a doctor with the Medical Council here. As a result, the council was unable to take proceedings against him under the terms of the 1978 Medical Practitioners Act.
The Department of Health said earlier this week that the Minister for Health, Mr Martin, had signed a statutory instrument to prevent unregistered doctors working in the State. But, following queries from The Irish Times yesterday, it emerged that no such instrument had been signed.
According to a Department source, it was initially thought that a statutory instrument could prohibit unregistered doctors, "but subsequent legal advice said it would not be possible to deal with a situation like this because of the definition of a medical practitioner in the 1978 Medical Practitioners Act."
The Department is now looking to have that part of the draft Medical Practitioners Bill, which more accurately defines "the practice of medicine", treated as a separate piece of legislation and enacted more quickly.
Such a redefinition, sources suggest, would allow the Medical Council to institute an inquiry into doctors who were not on the register but who offered treatments that would fall under the new definition of the practice of medicine.
The Minister for Health has said that it will be next year before a full, new medical practitioners Bill is enacted. However, it is believed that the heads of the new Bill are ready to go before Cabinet, possibly as early as next Tuesday's cabinet meeting.
Mr Martin has expressed his intention to ensure greater lay representation on the Medical Council. Under the 1978 Act, just four of the 24 members of the Medical Council are not doctors.
Public transparency and the re-licensing of doctors based on their competence are expected to be key elements of the legislation.