Nursing Homes Registration (Scotland) Act 1938
| Year | 1938 |
Nursing Homes Registration (Scotland) Act, 1938
(1 & 2 Geo. 6.) CHAPTER 73.
An Act to provide for the registration and inspection of nursing homes in Scotland and for purposes connected therewith.
[29th July 1938]
B E it enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
1 Registration of nursing homes.
(1) If any person carries on a nursing home without being duly registered in respect thereof, he shall be guilty of an offence against this Act and shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding fifty pounds or, in the case of a second or subsequent offence, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months or to a fine not exceeding fifty pounds or to both such imprisonment and fine.
(2) Application for registration shall be made in writing to the local authority in whose area the home is situate in the form prescribed by the Department, and shall be accompanied by a fee of five shillings.
(3) Subject as provided in this Act, the local authority shall, on the receipt of an application for registration, register the applicant in respect of the nursing home named in the application and issue to him a certificate of registration:
Provided that the authority may by order refuse to register the applicant if they are satisfied—
(a ) that he or any person employed or proposed to be employed by him at the home is not a fit person, whether by reason of age, conduct or otherwise, to carry on or to be employed at a nursing home of such a description as the nursing home named in the application; or
(b ) that for reasons connected with situation, construction, state of repair, accommodation, staffing or equipment, the home or any premises used or to be used in connection therewith are not fit to be used for a nursing home of such a description as the nursing home named in the application, or that the home or premises are used or to be used for purposes which are in any way improper or undesirable in the case of such a nursing home; or
(c ) in the case of a nursing home (other than a maternity home), that the home is not or will not be under the charge of a person who is either a registered medical practitioner or a qualified nurse and who is or will be resident in the home, or that there is not or will not be a proper proportion of qualified nurses among the persons having the superintendence of, or employed in, the nursing of the patients in the home; or
(d ) in the case of a maternity home, that the person having the superintendence of the nursing of the patients in the home is not a qualified nurse and a certified midwife, or that any person employed in attending any woman in the home in childbirth or in nursing any patient in the home is not a registered medical practitioner, a certified midwife, a pupil midwife or a qualified nurse.
(4) The certificate of registration issued in respect of a nursing home shall be kept affixed in a conspicuous place in the home, and, if default is made in complying with the foregoing requirement, the person carrying on the home shall be guilty of an offence against this Act.
2 Cancellation of registration.
(1) Subject as provided in this Act, a local authority may by order at any time cancel the registration of a person in respect of any nursing home on any ground which would entitle them to refuse an application for the registration of that person in respect of that home, or on the ground that that person has been convicted of an offence against this Act or against Part II of the Midwives and Maternity Homes (Scotland) Act, 1927 , or that any other person has been convicted of such an offence in respect of that home:
Provided that, in the case of a person registered in respect of a maternity home under any enactment repealed by this Act, the local authority shall not cancel the registration of that person in respect of that home on the ground that it does not comply with the provisions of paragraph (d ) of subsection (3) of section one of this Act until the expiration of three months after the authority have given him notice in writing requiring that the provisions of the said paragraph shall be complied with.
(2) Upon the registration of any person in respect of any home being cancelled, the holder of the certificate of registration shall forthwith deliver up the certificate to the local authority.
3 Notice of refusal or of cancellation of registration.
(1) Before making an order refusing an application for registration or an order cancelling any registration, the local authority shall give to the applicant or to the person registered, as the case may be, not less than fourteen days' notice of their intention to make such an order, and every such notice shall state the grounds on which the authority intend to make the order and shall contain an intimation that, if within fourteen days after the receipt of the notice the applicant or person registered informs the authority in writing that he desires so to do, the authority will, before making the order, give him an opportunity of showing cause, in person or by a representative, why the order should not be made.
(2) Where a local authority have made an order refusing an application for registration or cancelling any registration, they shall cause a copy of the order to be sent to the applicant or the person registered.
(3) Any person aggrieved by an order refusing an application for registration or cancelling any registration may, within fourteen days after the date on which the copy of the order was sent to him, appeal against it to the sheriff, whose decision shall be final and shall be given effect to by the local authority.
(4) No such order shall come into force until the expiration of fourteen days from the date on which it was made, or, where notice of appeal is given against it, until the appeal has been decided or withdrawn.
4 Regulations.
(1) The Department may make regulations prescribing anything which under this Act is to be or may be prescribed and prescribing the records to be kept in respect of every nursing home and, in particular, without prejudice to the foregoing generality—
(a ) with respect to every nursing home, the records to be kept of—
(i) the patients admitted to the home, and
(ii) the persons engaged or employed at the home;
(b ) with respect to every maternity home, the records to be kept of—
(i) the infant children in the home;
(ii) the births, still-births, premature births and abortions or miscarriages occurring in the home; and
(iii) every child born in the home who is removed from the home otherwise than to the custody or care of a parent, guardian or relative of the child; and
(c ) with respect to every nursing home, the notices to be given when any death occurs therein.
(2) Regulations made under this section shall be laid before both Houses of Parliament as soon as may be after they are made:
Provided that, if an address is presented to His Majesty by either House within the next subsequent twenty-one days on which that House has sat after regulations are laid before it praying that the regulations may be annulled, the regulations shall thenceforth be void, without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done thereunder, or to the making of new regulations.
(3...
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