Africa-Press – South-Africa. Healthcare workers say the Health Professions Council of South Africa’s (HPCSA) 13% increase of annual registration fees is unreasonable.
They have started a petition in an effort to force the council to reverse its increase decision.
Healthcare professionals have to pay registration fees to continue practising.
The 2022/2023 fees are payable by 1 April and if they don’t pay by the date, they are removed from the register.
Last year, fees were only increased for dentists and medical doctors.
For 2022/2023, all health professionals registered with the body will have to pay more.
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According to the new cost structure, medical doctors and dentists must pay a R3 730 registration fee. Medical doctors and dentists who want to register as specialists have to pay fees of R7 446. Intern doctors have to pay R531.
Biokineticists have to pay R3 039 to write a theoretical board exam and R3 793 to write a practical board exam.
The petition states that fees were increased by 15% in 2021.
It read:
“It is unjustifiable to raise the registration fees by this amount once again as doctors across the country struggle for weeks and months to obtain documentation from the HPCSA.”
The petition claims calls and emails to the HPCSA are not answered for weeks.
About 26 000 people have signed the petition.
The South African Medical Association (SAMA) said the fee increases were “unfair and not justifiable”.
In a statement, the body representing doctors said its members were trying to rebuild practices that were negatively affected by the pandemic.
The statement read:
Medical practitioner Dr Angelique Coetzee described the increases as “unholy”.
“Unfortunately, they have already gazetted this. There is nothing we can do.”
Coetzee said healthcare worker organisations met with the HPCSA last October and one of the things they discussed was registration fee increases.
“The common understanding was that before the fees are gazetted, they would come to us. And they didn’t.”
She said the HPCSA needed to be open about their financial standing.
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“I think it is time we see the financial statements from the past two to three years. We need to know what they are doing with the money. Litigation takes forever, administration takes forever. So, what are they doing with the money?”
The HPCSA’s president, Simon Nemutandani, said he was aware of the healthcare workers’ concerns.
“Council is currently engaging all relevant stakeholders to ensure a common understanding of the process which was followed and the main contributors to the determination of the annual fee increase.”
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