Bill 221.

Summary.

The bill would recognize the professions of occupational health technician and occupational health graduate throughout the Republic of Panama. Practice would require the relevant professional certification and would be governed by the proposed provisions and regulations issued by the Executive Branch (Órgano Ejecutivo). It defines a graduate as a health professional holding a bachelor’s degree from a national or foreign university, based on a course of study lasting at least four years. It also requires a bachelor’s degree for technicians, but sets the minimum duration of their course of study at three years, at a national or foreign university.

To obtain professional certification and practice either profession, applicants would have to be Panamanian nationals and submit an application through a lawyer, on officially authorized paper, to the Public Health Technical Council (Consejo Técnico de Salud Pública). The application must include a birth certificate authenticated in accordance with legal requirements; the original and a copy of a current personal identity card; the original and a copy of the occupational health technician or graduate diploma, or its equivalent; and the original and a copy of university transcripts. Applicants must also provide separate physical and mental health certificates valid for at least three months, pass the Basic Certification Examination, and, if the qualification was awarded abroad, submit the original and a copy of the certificate recognizing the degree issued by the General Secretariat of the University of Panama (Universidad de Panamá). The Executive Branch could prescribe further requirements in its regulations.

Documents issued in a foreign language would have to be translated into Spanish and either legalized by consular authorities or formally apostilled. Foreign university qualifications for occupational health technicians or graduates would first have to be officially recognized as equivalent by the University of Panama. A technician who subsequently obtains graduate-level professional certification would retain the same professional registration number. The Health Technical Council (Consejo Técnico de Salud) would sanction breaches of the proposed provisions in accordance with the current Health Code. Technicians and graduates would be prohibited from making diagnoses and instituting treatments.

The bill would designate March 5 each year as the National Day of Occupational Safety and Health Technicians and Graduates, in recognition of the birth of Dr. Francisco Díaz Mérida. It would also designate April 28 each year as the Day of Safety and Health at Work. The Executive Branch would have ninety days from the provisions’ entry into force to issue regulations, and the bill provides for entry into force upon promulgation. Its provisions concern the Executive Branch, the University of Panama and the Health Technical Council, and could be of interest to occupational health professionals and students, universities, employers, and workplace safety and health services.