The Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) has denied deliberately frustrating attempts by overseas-trained South African medics to integrate with the local medical fraternity.
This follows the latest accusations by the SA Internationally Trained Health Professionals Association (Saithpa) on behalf of the affected doctors. On various occasions, the non-profit Saithpa has secured High Court orders in its favour over some of the HPCSA’s methods of operations, reports The Sunday Tribune.
The allegations related to the HPCSA’s administration of its board exams and doctors’ rights to access their exam scripts, while also highlighting was that result marks were, apparently, noticeably lower since the board exams had moved from Gauteng’s Sefako Makgatho University to the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
HPCSA communications manager Priscilla Sekhonyana said the decision to relocate the exams was because the original institution had declined another contract extension.
“Only UKZN expressed interest in taking over the responsibility,” she said, but was unable to explain why pass rates had since dropped significantly,
Contrary to arguments from the frustrated doctors, she said they had never disallowed either the viewing or remarking of exam scripts, but this had to be done in accordance with the rules and availability of time by the examining institution.
The HPCSA was not in the business of fleecing money from applicants and practitioners, she added, and “every effort is made to minimise costs to practitioners, who are the only source of income for the regulatory body”.
She said fees are based on a full cost recovery basis, including payments to universities managing the exams for the HPCSA, and “our employees who manage the exams”.
Asked about Saithpa’s claim that practitioners faced unnecessary delays and hurdles regarding the vetting of qualifications of doctors who attempt integration locally, even endorsement from the Education Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG), Sekhonyana said: “South Africa is not beholden to any standards of curricula or training other than those determined within the country through its established institutions and mechanisms, including those from the regulatory bodies – the HPCSA, the National Qualifications Framework as managed by the South African Qualifications Authority, and the Commission for Higher Education.”
Foreign-qualified applicants were not entitled for automatic registration with the HPCSA and the training they receive abroad needed to be assessed for equivalence, she told the Tribune.
The ECFMG only helped with the authentication of an institution, and did not provide confirmation on the curriculum content.
“Therefore, the board takes additional steps to ascertain that applicants are competent.”
Sekhonyana said they acknowledged that the HPCSA systems and processes sometimes posed challenges, but no malice was intended.
Most of the delays with processing applications were due to applicants’ failure to provide the required information to make a determination on curricula equivalence speedily, she said.
“The HPCSA was never deliberately in contempt of High Court judgments. Some of the judgments scuttled the HPCSA attempts made in good faith to assist applicants. The HPCSA is currently working on having the judgments reviewed, with the possibility of them being set aside,” she added.
Sunday Tribune PressReader article – HPCSA ‘not hindering doctors from working in SA’ (Open access)
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
HPCSA allegedly impeding overseas-trained doctors’ SA integration
More than 100 foreign-trained doctors take HPCSA to court over registration
Foreign-trained SA doctors head to court over lack of internships