SOUTH African doctors trained abroad, who decried delays in examination by the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA), have been given a ray of hope that backlogs of foreign qualifications will be handled before the end of 2023.
In recent weeks, doctors from South Africa who had acquired foreign qualifications complained of how they were unable to write their board exams as the council had failed to offer them, while they desperately needed work as a result of expired contracts.
Council registrar, Dr Magome Masike, accredited the delays in the registration of foreign-trained doctors to ‘administrative challenges’.
In explaining how the challenge arose, Masike said this was due to the fact that the training received by all foreign-qualified medical practitioners was subject to review, in order to measure compliance and equivalence to South Africa’s requirements.
He said this was crucial as it was needed to ascertain whether the qualifications met criteria and allowed them to practice their profession in the country they were based.
He said the review process had to consider the curriculum content, duration of studies, and recognition of the institution from which training was received, by the local regulator and ministry responsible in the particular country.
In instances where the review process found that the training was neither equivalent nor satisfactory, the council stated that registration was denied because: “a foreign qualification on its own does not guarantee automatic registration”.
Although previously, Medical Board examinations were handled by the Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University (SMU), following the expiration of the contract after several extensions, Masike said they initiated a process to seek a replacement in March 2022.
The process, he said, hit a delay as only one bidder had responded to the advert, and, to make matters worse, they did not meet the supply chain requirements.
Another advert was placed in July 2022, and yet again only one bidder applied, but they still did not meet the requirements.
The council said they deviated from the normal procurement process to enable negotiations with the institution to provide guidance and ensure they met the necessary requirements.
“This process took longer than anticipated but it is now nearing completion. To address the registration backlog of foreign-qualified medical doctors, the HPCSA is still preparing to conduct both theory and practical board examinations before the end of the year.
“The council will endeavour to explore a more efficient and effective approach to medical examinations, after consultations with all the relevant stakeholders. I would like to apologise to the affected practitioners and assure them that we are working tirelessly to ensure a speedy and permanent solution for all,” Masike added.