A new piece of legislation will require members of the public to report medical practitioners they believe are unfit for work ? or face a $1,000 fine.

The Medical Practitioners' Amendment Act 2006 passed its second reading in the House of Assembly yesterday, a week after Opposition MPs first pinpointed a series of anomalies in the proposed law.

Health Minister Patrice Minors withdrew the bill from the day's business in the House on June 2 after admitting it was flawed.

Yesterday she brought back a redraft which was scrutinised in committee.

John Barritt, United Bermuda Party Leader of the House and Whip, said it was important that the public understood that the law now required them to report a medical practitioner they believed was unfit for work because of drink or drugs.

"If you fail to comply with that you face conviction," he said, adding that the public would have "this statutory duty thrust upon them".

"It's a very, very onerous thing to impose upon people. It doesn't allow any member of the public to make a complaint ? it requires them."

He added that anyone who failed to do so and was convicted could be fined $1,000.

United Bermuda Party backbencher Grant Gibbons questioned the fact that the part of the law which deals with mandatory reporting states that members of the public should orally report an unfit medic yet a fellow medical professional was restricted to making a report in writing.

"It almost seems as though the health care individual can't give an oral report on it," he said.

Mrs. Minors said: "We wanted to put an added responsibility on the health care professionals because of their profession to document in writing any allegation."

She added that there was nothing to stop those professionals verbally reporting any allegation as well.