New South Wales Consolidated Acts

HEALTH PRACTITIONER REGULATION NATIONAL LAW (NSW) - SECT 115A

115A Claims by persons as to membership of surgical class

(1) A medical practitioner who is not a member of a surgical class must not knowingly or recklessly do any of the following--

(a) take or use the title "surgeon";

(b) take or use a title, name, initial, symbol, word or description that, having regard to the circumstances in which it is taken or used, indicates or could be reasonably understood to indicate the practitioner is a member of a surgical class;

(c) claim to be, or hold out as being, a member of a surgical class.

: Maximum penalty--$60,000 or 3 years imprisonment or both.

(2) A person must not knowingly or recklessly do any of the following in relation to a medical practitioner who is not a member of a surgical class--

(a) take or use the title "surgeon" in relation to the practitioner;

(b) take or use a title, name, initial, symbol, word or description that, having regard to the circumstances in which it is taken or used, indicates or could be reasonably understood to indicate the practitioner is a member of a surgical class;

(c) claim the practitioner is, or hold the practitioner out as being, a member of a surgical class.

: Maximum penalty--

(a) in the case of an individual--$60,000 or 3 years imprisonment or both; or

(b) in the case of a body corporate--$120,000.

(3) Subsections (1)(a) and (2)(a)--

(a) apply whether or not the title "surgeon" is taken or used with or without any other words and whether in English or any other language; but

(b) do not apply to, or in relation to, a medical practitioner who is not a member of a surgical class if the practitioner--

(i) holds registration in the dentists division of the dental profession; or

(ii) is permitted under this Law, or another law of a State or Territory, to take or use the title "surgeon" for practising a profession other than the medical profession.

(4) Before making regulations prescribing a class of medical practitioner as a surgical class, the Ministerial Council must have regard to--

(a) any advice the National Board for the medical profession gives to the Ministerial Council about prescribing the class; and

(b) the surgical training required to be undertaken by members of the proposed class.

(5) In this section--

"surgical class" means the following classes of medical practitioners--

(a) a medical practitioner holding specialist registration in the recognised specialty of surgery;

(b) a medical practitioner holding specialist registration in the recognised specialty of obstetrics and gynaecology;

(c) a medical practitioner holding specialist registration in the recognised specialty of ophthalmology;

(d) a medical practitioner holding specialist registration in another recognised specialty in the medical profession with the word "surgeon" in a specialist title for the specialty;

(e) another class of medical practitioner prescribed as a surgical class by regulations made by the Ministerial Council.