Unemployed SA doctors who have been trained abroad are becoming increasingly frustrated with the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA), which has failed to offer board exams that would allow them to get jobs – because of an expired contract – and which ignores emails and does not bother to respond to them.
News24 reports that Sefako Makgatho University used to manage the medical board examinations on behalf of the Medical and Dental Board, however, its contract expired, after several extensions.
Last week, around 250 of the jobless doctors from around the country – all trained in countries like China, Italy, Mauritius and Russia – marched to the HPCSA offices in Pretoria to hand over a memorandum, claiming that since 2020, hundreds of foreign medical graduates have applied to write the exams that would allow them to start practising here.
Not a single one was invited to write it, they said.
Their demands to the HPCSA include:
• To provide all applicants with a specific date to sit for the board exams;
• To assign medical internships while they await dates for board exams;
• Equal treatment for South African and Cuban-trained doctors;
• To increase the number of candidates sitting for the board exams from 100 to 250, and;
• For the HPCSA to be specific about the number of attempts allowed to take the required medical board exams.
HPCSA head of department David Mametja accepted the memorandum and apologised to the doctors, saying they hoped to conduct a round of pre-internship theory and practical examinations before the end of this year.
Spokesperson Christopher Tsatsawane said a supply chain management process for a replacement service provider had been started in March 2022. Yet more than a year later, there has been no successful bidder.
“Only one bidder responded, who did not meet the requirements,” he said.
Another closed bid was advertised to all universities in July 2022, but the same institution was the sole respondent, and again, did not meet the requirements.
Tsatsawane said a deviation from normal procurement processes was then sought to allow for negotiations with the institution to provide guidance and ensure that requirements were met. This took longer than expected but was nearly completed, he added.
The HPCSA “is still preparing to conduct both theory and practical board examinations before year-end” to tackle the registration backlog of these doctors.
Department of Health spokesperson Foster Mohale said they were aware of the situation.
“We have been assured a date will be issued soon by the council and that a second round of exams will accommodate those … to enable all qualified doctors eligible for placement as medical interns,” he said.
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
More than 100 foreign-trained doctors take HPCSA to court over registration
Foreign-trained doctors go to court over delays in degree recognition
Foreign-trained SA doctors head to court over lack of internships
HPCSA, DoH threatened with legal action over foreign-trained doctors’ placement