276 STUDENTS’ GUIDE, 1940-41

the deans that the arrangements were made without dueregard to the needs of medical education. The groupofficers, however, have proved sympathetic when makingthe sector arrangements. The dean of the West LondonHospital suggests that many of the teaching difficultiesmight have been avoided if some person or committeehad been appointed to see that the work of the studentswas disturbed as little as possible by emergency measuresand that it is not too late to appoint such a committeenow. " Cooperation between medical schools and hos-pitals," he writes, "has been left to individual enter-

prise and has doubtless often been successfully achieved.But the efforts of overworked staffs might be economisedif such attempts at cooperation were centrally inspiredand coordinated. The doctors of tomorrow deserve thebest that present conditions can provide."

GENERAL MEDICAL COUNCILTHE duties of the General Council of Medical Educa-

tion and Registration of the United Kingdom are four-fold. First, it is responsible for registration : no oneis a legally qualified medical practitioner unless his nameappears on the Medical Register. Secondly, it is astandardising body, ensuring that there is a definiteminimum of medical education and examination require-ments. Thirdly, it is responsible for discipline within theprofession and has the power to remove from the Registerany practitioner convicted of a criminaloffence or judged by the Council to havebeen guilty of infamous conduct in anyprofessional respect. Fourthly, it has theexclusive right of printing, publishing,and selling the British Pharmacopoeia.Any application to be admitted to a

school of medicine on beginning themedical curriculum proper should beaddressed to the dean or other appropriateauthority of the school to which the appli-cant desires to be admitted. Students areno longer registered by the GeneralMedical Council before their admission toschools, and it rests with the authorities ofschools and of licensing bodies to deal attheir discretion, without further referenceto the Council, with applications for ad-mission to schools. Applications are nowconsidered by the authorities of schoolsand of licensing bodies in the light of therecommendations of the Council in regardto the registration of medical students, in- -corporating resolutions in re gard to generaleducation and preliminary scientific sub-jects, which came into operation on

Nov. lst, 1938.The course of professional study after

admission to a school of medicine as astudent commencing the medical curricu-lum proper occupies at least five years.The final examination in medicine, sur-gery, and midwifery must not be passedbefore the close of the fifth academic year,of medical study, but in order that thisrequirement may dovetail with the datesat which the sessions of the medicalschools begin and end, the fifth year maybe reckoned as complete fifty-sevenmonths from the date of registration.The position of the practitioner qualify-

ing in Eire is that: (1) if he intends topractise only in Eire he need only registerin the Register for Eire ; (2) if he intendsto practise in Great Britain or NorthernIreland he will register in the Register keptby the General Medical Council; and (3)if he is in doubt where he will practise hewill register in both Registers. He will,as he registers in one Register, or inboth Registers, put himself under thedisciplinary control of the one council orof both councils.

The Defence Services

The Central Medical War Committee of the BritishMedical Association is responsible for the supply of alldoctors for the defence services.

Royal Naval Medical ServiceThe usual regulations governing entry of medical and

dental officers to the Royal Naval Medical Service aresuspended during the war and the only medical officersbeing admitted are those granted temporary commissionsin the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve. After the warany vacancies will probably be filled by selection ofofficers from among those who have served in theR.N.V.R. during the war.

Royal Army Medical CorpsNo applications for regular commissions will be

invited during the war for the Royal Army MedicalCorps. It is expected that after the war, regular officerswill be made up at first from among those who served asEmergency Commission officers during the war. Noshort-service appointments are being made at present;all war-time appointments are for the duration of war.

Royal Air Force Medical BranchCommissions in the medical branch of the R.A.F. are

now given only to those appointed to the Royal Air ForceVolunteer Reserve for duration of the war. Short serviceand permanent commissions are at present in abeyance.

THE NUMBERS WHO ENTER THE MEDICAL PROFESSION

The figures from which this graph has been compiled are taken from theregisters of the General Medical Council and the Dental Board of the UnitedKingdom published by Constable & Co., Ltd. The student’s register is notbeing published this year and the figures for the academical year 1939-40-medical students 2502, dental students 302-have been given us by theRegistrar. At the same time the 1938-39 totals have been adjusted toinclude names received too late last year for inclusion in the printed register.