SA's medical regulator, which for weeks delayed the move to telemedicine to deal with COVID-19, has been slow to mobilise the skills of the country's foreign-trained practitioners, medical students and young doctors, writes MedicalBrief.
Across the world, healthcare workers are putting themselves on the frontline. But, writes Koot Kotze, a South African medical doctor doing his doctoral research in primary health care at the University of Oxford, writes in a Bhekisisa report, in South Africa, the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) may not have yet given them all the tools they’ll need to win the fight against COVID-19.
Kotze writes that we may be able to learn valuable lessons from the UK, where the General Medical Council (GMC), has used emergency provisions of the UK’s Medical Act to automatically grant temporary registration to more than 11,000 doctors who had given up their registration or licence to practise in the past three years. Additionally, Kotze writes, newly graduated medical students and young doctors who have not yet completed internships can also receive provisional registration.
In contrast, the HPCSA, has halted registrations of foreign-qualified professionals during the 21-day national lockdown, due to their qualifications having to be reviewed by the registrar. As of 2010, South Africa was home to at least 8,000 foreign-trained physicians.
Kotze writes that the HPCSA should be looking at more ways to increase the health workforce now, which may include: temporarily registering foreign-qualified healthcare workers already in the country to act as “acute care assistants” to work alongside registered doctors in emergency units; offering non-practising workers rapid re-registration; granting junior doctors who have not been placed for internship or community service a provisional practice licence to join frontline work; relaxing restrictions on scopes of practice between specialities and professions to recognise that in times like these, certain specialists may have to function outside of their scopes of practice to assist in emergencies. Task sharing, meanwhile, may mean that professions such as nurses may also need to function outside of their scopes of practice.
A directive gazetted has provided for the urgent recruitment and training of additional healthcare personnel; the redeployment of existing healthcare workers to sites where they are most needed; and the temporary engagement of retired medical and community service personnel, along with the employees of non-governmental and community based organisations, reports Pam Saxby for Legalbrief Policy Watch.
More expanded public works programme participants will also be recruited. The sourcing of “health equipment, sanitation material and medical supplies” for “various sites” is also addressed, noting the importance of appropriate training in its use, in the disposal of “healthcare waste” and in the use of “personal protective clothing”.
The directive requires “all metropolitan and district municipalities” to identify “suitably authorised mortuaries with valid certificates” for the accommodation and management of COVID-19 “mortal remains” – referring the authorities to “Chapters 5 and 6 of the human remains regulations’ for guidance on their ‘handling, transportation and final disposal”.
In this regard, a protocol is prescribed among other things prohibiting handling human remains “with bare hands” and “kissing” them.
The recruitment process must be shortened by advertising a post and effecting appointments within a week, on condition that an appointment may be set aside depending on suitability checks, says a Groundup report.
The regulations state that all health authorities must identify needs and health professionals must be available for deployment where they are needed. Retired doctors and nurses, community service personnel, expanded public works workers, community-based organisations, and NGOs may be requested to fill in positions on a temporary basis.
The regulations state that all authorities should engage with NGOs and retired people and they must consider assisting. All stakeholders, sector departments, NGOs and members of the public were urged to support any effort to combat the virus.
[link url="https://bhekisisa.org/opinion/2020-04-09-how-to-fix-south-africa-healthcare-worker-shortage-coronavirus-covid19/"]Full Bhekisisa report[/link]
[link url="https://legalbrief.co.za/diary/legalbrief-today/policy-watch/covid-19-crisis-more-healthcare-personnel-to-be-recruited/"]Full Legalbrief Policy Watch report[/link]
[link url="https://www.groundup.org.za/article/covid-19-health-minister-calls-volunteers/"]Full Groundup report[/link]