Revised Laws of Saint Lucia (2022)

6.   Duties of District Medical Officers

The duties of each medical officer within his or her district are as follows—

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   (a)     to afford at the appointed stations on the appointed days and hours, free medical aid to all paupers, to all workers' children under 14 years of age, and to all workers over 60 years.

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   However, the medical officer shall attend at the residence of a pauper, child, or worker over 60 years of age, who is too ill to travel, or in the case of a child, to be carried to such station;

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      (b)     to afford medical aid to any worker not entitled to gratuitous medical aid under this Act who may require his or her services for such remuneration as is in accordance with the table of fees fixed in the rules to be made by the Governor General under the authority of this Act;

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      (c)     to vaccinate under the provisions of any Act regulating vaccination, and subject to the approval of the Chief Medical Officer to appoint the place and hours for vaccination;

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      (d)     to afford free medical aid to the constables and non-commissioned officers of the Police Force, and at the request of the Officer in charge of any Police Station, or Prison, to afford such aid to any prisoner confined therein; and also at the request of the Commissioner of Police to examine and report on the physical condition and fitness of any applicant for admission to the Police Force.

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   However, a rural constable shall not be entitled to be afforded such free medical aid unless when called upon for duty or if he or she has been injured whilst on duty;

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      (e)     to attend at such places and times as the Governor General may direct for the purpose of giving medical aid to such persons as under this Act are entitled thereto and to furnish such returns of such attendance and in such form as may be prescribed by the Chief Medical Officer;

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      (f)     to attend and give evidence at all inquests and to make post mortem or other examinations when required by the coroner without fee or reward;

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      (g)     to attend at any Government hospital or medical institution daily or more often if necessary or as directed by the Chief Medical Officer and to afford medical aid to all persons who are under treatment and to discharge such duties in connection with such hospital as may be prescribed by the Governor General by rules;

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      (h)     to enter into and inspect any shop, building, stall or place kept or used for the sale of butchers' meat, poultry, fish or any other article of human food or any spirituous or fermented liquors, and to examine any animal, meat, carcase, poultry, fish or any other article of human food or any spirituous or fermented liquor, which may be there and in case any butcher's meat, poultry or fish so examined appears to him or her to be intended but unfit for food to seize and destroy them or cause them to be seized by any constable and destroyed, and in case of any other articles of human food or spirituous or fermented liquor, he or she shall cause the same to be seized and shall proceed against the person to whom they belong or in whose possession they are found. Every such person is liable on conviction to a penalty not exceeding $48 and in default of payment to imprisonment with or without hard labour for any term not exceeding 2 months;

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      (i)     to carry out such duties under the Public Health Act or any Act relating to public health in force as the Chief Medical Officer may direct and to inspect as often as the Chief Medical Officer may direct any part of his or her district, and for the purpose of such inspection it is lawful for him or her, if he or she has good reason to believe that the sanitary condition is not satisfactory to enter into and inspect any house, building, or premises within his or her district, and to inquire into the sanitary condition, reporting to the sanitary authority any nuisance he or she may find existing;

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      (j)     to furnish to the Chief Medical Officer at the end of every month or more often if required a return setting out the sanitary condition of his or her district, especially of the towns and villages, the nature and locality of all nuisances, if any, the date of all visits of sanitary inspection, the names of the places so visited, and such other particulars, if any, as the Chief Medical Officer may require;

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      (k)     to perform if required so to do by the Governor General the duties of health or visiting officer of any port in his or her district under any Act of Saint Lucia regulating such duties;

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      (l)     to give medical aid in cases of serious illness and to any woman in child-birth without demanding prepayment. But this shall not debar him or her from afterwards recovering payment if the person attended to is not entitled to free treatment;

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      (m)     to certify the causes of death of patients dying, as required by any Act now or hereafter to be in force in Saint Lucia regulating the registration of births and deaths, without fee or reward;

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      (n)     at the request of the officer in charge of any police station without fee or reward, and with the necessary consent, to examine and report on the physical condition and fitness of any person in police custody.