Call for a Commission of Inquiry into the dysfunctionality of the            

                         HPCSA by   DOCTORS4SA. 

We, the members of the South African Internationally Trained Health Professionals Association,  call on all freedom  loving South Africans, who:

1.     Stand in long queues awaiting medical treatment at state run facilities.

2.     Camp overnight outside health care facilities to gain access to medical care.

3.     Are turned away from health care facilities due to a shortage of health care professionals and resources.

4.     As practising medical personnel are overworked and unduly stressed due to the shortage of medical personnel.

And Further, We call on:

5.     Our peers and colleagues

6.     Persons of integrity and conscience

7.     Members of the medical fraternity

8.     Members of the general public

To support this prayer to  President Ramaphosa to constitute an urgent  Commission of Inquiry into the dysfunctionality of the HPCSA, which brief, will be to investigate and thereafter make recommendations that will address the following:

1.     Recommendations of the Ministerial Task Team Report  [2015].

1.1.         Why recommendations proposed by the Ministerial Task Team[1]  constituted in 2015 to investigate administrative irregularities, poor governance and mismanagement have not been implemented?

1.2.         Why has the Minister of Health not made any attempt to ensure implementation of the recommendations contained in the Ministerial Report?

1.3.         Why the Minister of Health, has ignored complaints directed to him in respect of the functionality and efficiency of the HPCSA to deliver on its mandate?

2.     Access to undergraduate clinical rotation programmes

2.1.         Undergraduate Clinical Rotation offered to non-nationals

Undergraduate clinical rotation programmes are offered to non-nationals but not South African foreign trained doctors. In effect this means that our tax-payers are subsidising the training of foreign doctors but not our own citizens who wish to access these programmes.

South African undergraduates who are unable to return to their institution of study abroad as a consequence of the pandemic are refused registration to these local undergraduate clinical rotation programmes.  These universities have not provided these doctors with a rational and sensible explanation as to why they are excluded from these local  clinical rotation programmes.

2.2.         Poor treatment of South African graduates by university staff.

2.3.         Agreement between Free State government and Dalian University –China

Why has the HPCSA denied knowledge of this agreement whereas it has now registered certain graduates as student interns under this agreement?

This means that foreign trained undergraduates enrolled at the same university are treated differently in that undergraduates who are recipients under a scholarship programme are permitted to complete their undergraduate clinical rotation in the country whereas their peers who paid for their own studies are not allowed to enrol for the undergraduate clinical rotation programme.

 

3.     2019 Board Examination

3.1.         Why did the HPCSA contract an American based agency –SPEX INTERNATIONAL- to conduct the South African Medical Board examinations in 2019?

3.2.         Why was the content tested in the September 2019 board  examination based on the practice of medicine in the USA, when doctors writing this examination registered with the HPCSA to practice in South Africa. ?

3.3.         What was the cost   to engage SPEXI –to conduct the examinations?

3.4.         Who, if anybody, benefited from the above contract?

3.5.         Why was the contract with SPEXI terminated, prematurely?

3.6.         Why was there no board examinations scheduled for 2020?

4.     Release of Examination date.

4.1.         Why has the HPCSA, consistently, failed to disclose scheduled dates for the medical board examinations to give candidates sufficient time for preparation and study?

4.2.         What purpose is served by giving candidates, only, a 30 day notice period, to write the examinations?

5.     Administrative Issues

5.1.         Why has the HPCSA not released a register of international universities it recognises?

The release of such a list will serve two purposes; firstly it will enable persons who wish to pursue a career in the health sciences to choose institutions recognised by the HPCSA and secondly; graduates will not suffer the level of prejudice currently experienced since the HPCSA has yet to take a decision on whether it recognises the international institution from whence they obtained their degrees. Despite graduates having provided the HPCSA with all the information needed to undertake a curriculum review process, the HPCSA  has fielded nothing but excuses for the last three years. These graduates are waiting to write the board examinations since 2018.

5.2.         Why has the HPCSA  not registered South Africa medical undergraduates studying abroad as per the regulations governing such registration?

Such registration process was to commence in 2019. Had this registration process commenced, every undergraduate /graduate would have made an informed choice when choosing a  medical training facility, recognised by the HPCSA.

5.3.         Why are applications for registration to write the board examinations not processed timeously?

5.4.         What criteria was used to invite candidates to write the board examination?

5.5.         Why was preference given to candidates who made application to write the board examination last year whereas candidates who made application in 2019 were ignored?

5.6.         Why has the HPCSA not addressed/ responded to the individual grievances lodged by candidates?

The HPCSA has been approached to resolve grievances since 2019- to date it has not responded to them.

6.     Derogatory/ libellous statements

7.     Discriminatory Conduct

8.     Curriculum Review of selected international universities.

9.     Candidates unsuccessful in the board examinations [theory and practical].

10.  Requests for access to the assessment scripts of candidates who wrote the board examinations.

11. Court Actions

12. Board examination fees.

Conclusion

It is our fervent hope, Mr President that you give due consideration to the above submission by taking into account the constitutional values and rights which  NOT ONLY  protects us  as citizens in this country of our birth, but allows us the freedom to fulfil our dreams and aspirations to practice our profession with dignity. 

We ask for nothing more, nor less.
PLEASE VIEW FULL PETITION HERE

View our website : www.saithpa.org.za