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The DA calls for the dissolution of the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) board, as well as the suspension of its CEO, Dr Magome Masike, and head of legal services, Adv Phelelani Khumalo, after revelations that the Council knowingly and intentionally enforced regulations declared illegal by the Competition Commission in 2011 and issued fines of up to R60 000 to medical professionals who contravened these unlawful regulations.

According to the South African Medical Association (SAMA), the Department of Health and all the Health Ministers, including Dr Joe Phaahla, failed to implement recommendations from an October 2015 ministerial report that found the HPSCA rife with mismanagement and maladministration. And in 2019, the Competition Commission’s market inquiry report also made findings against the HPCSA ethical rules, especially those regarding fee-sharing, multidisciplinary group practices, and employment of doctors.

The HPCSA has failed to serve the interests of its members for a very long time. Annually, the DA is inundated with requests for help from unplaced interns and community service doctors, doctors who qualified in foreign countries struggling with accreditation and registration, and concerns that complaints and investigations are being mismanaged.

This latest revelation shows that nothing has changed since the 2015 report found that under Adv Khumalo the HPCSA was a “dysfunctional system of professional conduct enquiries which has prejudiced practitioners and the public”.

This wilful unlawful conduct by the HPCSA is a terrible omen of the chaos and corruption that will surely trademark the National Health Insurance (NHI), as the Council will have the sole responsibility of registering and accrediting all health workers. Given the dire and debilitating circumstances created by the body meant to support them and the NHI threat, it is no wonder that medical professionals are already seeking opportunities elsewhere.

Issued by Michele Clarke MP - DA Shadow Minister of Health