NRS-15581 | Register of medical practitioners for New South Wales

Full description

The Register of medical practitioners recorded the name and qualifications of doctors registered in New South Wales by the Medical Board. The amount of detail varied, with some periods giving the practitioner’s name, and the institution and year from which he/she graduated. Other periods give additional information including the suburb or town where the doctor was residing; and if the doctor was in the service of the Royal Navy, this would be noted, and in some instances the name of the ship would be given. Some entries are annotated giving additional qualifications, the year and place of death, or change of name.

Later volumes may contain a remarks column giving the issue date of the certificate of hospital service and the name of the hospital. Some registrations identify the particular subsection of the Medical Practitioners Act 1938-1957, section 17, under which the practitioner qualified.

The first volume of the Register also contains the Minutes of the Medical Board between 31 December 1838 and 7 February 1854. After this date, the Minutes were kept separately and the volume continued to be used as a Register of medical practitioners until 13 February 1901. Included in the volume is a list of medical registers in the possession of the Medical Board dated July 1870 and an undated list of the number of graduates from the principal medical colleges in America. An index to names of medical practitioners, giving page and registration number, is located at the back of the Register.

The second volume of the Register (1901-1922) includes a separate register towards the back and was created under Section 3 of Act 70, 1900 (An Act to further regulate the practice of Medicine and Surgery by amending the Medical Practitioners Act, 1898, No. 26). Section 3 provided for a separate register of those who did not qualify for registration as a practitioner under the Medical Practitioners Act, 1898 provided they had proof of passing through a "due course of study at a recognised school of medicine and surgery," (1) and practised in a reputable manner as a medical practitioner in NSW during the five years prior to the passing of the 1900 Act.

The Register of Medical Practitioners was maintained in electronic format after 1982 and was no longer retained as a State archive because Doctors’ files for this period are complete and provide much more detail than the Register.

FOOTNOTES
1. Act No. 70, 1900, Section 3 (An Act to further regulate the practice of Medicine and Surgery by amending the Medical Practitioners Act, 1898, No. 26)