| Description | This section contains papers relating to medical education and medical registration in Ireland, and the College's role in shaping the governing of these two areas. The Medical Act (1858) and Amendment Act (1886) (see RCPI/13/9 and RCPI/13/14) established a system for the overseeing of medical education and registration in the UK. Under the 1858 Act the General Medical Council was set up to provide a register of all medical practitioners who held registrable qualifications under the terms of the Medical Acts. Several of the files in this section related to disputes over what constitutes a registrable medical qualification, additional material relating to this and the Apothecaries' Hall can be found in RCPI/11/13. The second function of the General Medical Council is to regulate and set standards for Medical Education in the UK, this series contains several files relating to committees and reports on the standard of medical education, especially in the 1940s and 1950s. After the formation of the Irish Free State in the 1920s there was an investigation into how the Irish Medical Profession should be regulated (RCPI/14/10), and several pieces of legislation were passed (RCPI/13/41). The system in Ireland remained similar to, and shaped by, the system in England, and the College of Physicians were still called upon to provide their opinion by the General Medical Council. In 1979 the Irish Medical Council was established to maintain the Irish Register and to provide for medical education, training and competence. |