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HomeSouth Africa'Insufficient evidence' ends HPCSA inquiry into bullying, racism and sexism claims

'Insufficient evidence' ends HPCSA inquiry into bullying, racism and sexism claims

The Health Professionals Council of SA has closed its inquiry into allegations by Dr Yumna Moosa of bullying, racism, and sexism by senior doctors at a KwaZulu-Natal hospital, due to 'insufficient evidence', reports The Mercury.

The complaint was lodged by Dr Yumna Moosa, who said in a media report last year that an “old boys club” had been bullying and promoting a culture of racism and sexism in hospitals. The report says the University of Cape Town medical graduate was quoted as saying at the time that she had lodged the formal complaint against a medical consultant in KwaZulu-Natal after she was allegedly sexually harassed while doing an internship at a hospital in that province. Moosa also released a video on YouTube in which she also exposes two of her superiors – one a head of department – who advised Moosa to destroy the logbook in which she recorded the incident.

The respondents, said the council, were served with a notification of complaint and were given 40 working days within which to respond. The matter was investigated by the council and subsequently referred to the Medical Board Committee of Preliminary Inquiry, which held a meeting dealing with the issue over two days in August last year. In January this year, this committee met with all the affected parties.

“The committee considered all the facts before it, including facts that arose during the consultations. It then resolved that there was insufficient evidence of unprofessional conduct and the parties were duly informed.”

The finding of the preliminary committee, said the council, was of immediate force and effect, but might be set aside by the High Court. “The complainant was informed of her rights to this effect.”

The report says Moosa wrote in a recent blog post that she played a recording for the council as part of her “mountain of evidence” – which she also shares on the same page – where her supervisor appears to threaten her with arrest if she did not throw away her internship logbook containing comments about his colleagues’ inappropriate behaviour.

“He instructs me to lie about what happened, and says he will blackmail me with that lie if I try to retract it.” She contends that those in charge tried to make her repeat her internship training on “absurdly false grounds”. “There seemed a clear case for charges of professional misconduct against at least two of the doctors involved to deter future abuse. But the (council) has since informed me that I was mistaken. In South Africa, in 2017, senior doctors are allowed to do this. The committee didn’t bother disputing what had happened, only my assumption that it was unacceptably 
unprofessional.”

She said: “They have now closed the inquiry, stating that my supervisors 'remain ethical, clinical (sic) and professional'."

The report says the KZN Department of Health had not responded to requests for comment by time of going to press.

Spokesperson and chair of the South African Medical Association Dr Mzukisi Grootboom, said the body has requested details of the investigation. “We have not yet received this information so it would be impossible to comment.”

[link url="http://www.iol.co.za/mercury/probe-into-alleged-misconduct-of-doctors-over-10121631"]The Mercury report[/link]

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