s 38 Voluntary removal, suspension, etc.
38.—(1) A registered medical practitioner may request the Medical Council to take one or more of the actions in subsection (2) if the registered medical practitioner believes that —(a) his fitness to practise medicine is impaired by reason of his physical or mental condition; or (b) the quality of the professional services provided by him does not meet the standard which is reasonable to expect of a medical practitioner. (2) Upon receiving a request under subsection (1), the Medical Council may, with the agreement of the registered medical practitioner, do one or more of the following:(a) remove the registered medical practitioner’s name from the appropriate register; (b) suspend the registration of the registered medical practitioner in the appropriate register for a period not exceeding 3 years; (c) where the registered medical practitioner is a fully registered medical practitioner in Part I of the Register of Medical Practitioners — remove the registered medical practitioner’s name from Part I of that Register and register him instead as a medical practitioner with conditional registration in Part II of that Register, and section 21(4), (6), (7), (8) and (9) applies accordingly; (d) where the registered medical practitioner is registered in any register other than Part I of the Register of Medical Practitioners — impose additional appropriate conditions or restrictions on his registration or vary the conditions or restrictions already imposed under section 21, 23 or 24; (e) suspend or cancel the registered medical practitioner’s practising certificate. (3) However, the Medical Council must not take any action under subsection (2) in relation to a registered medical practitioner if —(a) the Medical Council believes that there is evidence of any matter mentioned in section 40(3)(a) or (4)(a), (b) or (c); or (b) an inquiry under Division 2 has started and is pending against the registered medical practitioner. (4) Subsections (2) and (3) also apply where the Medical Council has given a notification to the registered medical practitioner under section 40(6)(b), except that if the Medical Council and the registered medical practitioner are unable to agree on the course of action to be taken under subsection (2)(a) to (e), the Medical Council must proceed to refer the matter to the chairman of the Complaints Panel under section 40(6)(a).[Act 34 of 2020 wef 01/07/2022]