The Ministry of Public Health has launched an investigation into the practice of medicine by unlicensed, foreign-educated physicians. Public Health Minister, Jose Rodriguez Soldevilla, said that any qualified doctors who are now practicing medicine within the DR ought to take the steps necessary to regularize their practice, since those who lack the required medical credentials will be suspended from practice and prosecuted for practicing medicine without a license. In addition, the Dominican Medical Association (AMD) has issued instructions to all its provincial chapters to provide a list of the names of unlicensed doctors within each respective province. Rodriguez Soldevilla said that many of these set up clinics in remote provinces and under-served communities where medical attention is hard to find. AMD President Victor Díaz Alba said that physicians trained in many Latin American nations had established themselves in the DR. A spokesman for the National Higher Education Council (CONES) affirmed that it has not approved the credentials of any foreign physician since 1996, nor are any such applications currently pending. CONES is the duly authorized entity for confirming the equivalent requirements of foreign educated doctors to practice medicine in the DR.
