Africa-Press – South-Africa. Medical doctors trained abroad are unable to write their board exams.
This means that they can’t practise in South Africa – a country already facing perennial shortages of medical professionals.
The Health Professions Council of South Africa has laid the blame on an expired contract, coupled with universities ignoring their bid requests.
Foreign-trained medical doctor Taz Jangbahadur studied medicine to fulfill his father’s dying wish but he is now living off his mother’s pension.
This is because the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) has failed to offer board exams to foreign-trained South African doctors desperately seeking work because of an expired contract.
However, the HPCSA – which regulates the education, training and registration for health professionals under the Health Professions Act – is hopeful that it will conduct a round of pre-internship theory and practical examinations before the end of this year.
Sefako Makgatho University managed the medical board examinations on behalf of the Medical and Dental Board, however, its contract expired, following several extensions.
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Responding to a query from News24, HPCSA spokesperson Christopher Tsatsawane said the council started a supply chain management process for a replacement service provider in March 2022. Yet, more than a year later, there has been no successful bidder.
“Unfortunately, only one bidder responded but did not meet the supply chain requirements,” Tsatsawane said.
Another closed bid was advertised to all the universities in July 2022, but the same institution was the sole respondent and once again did not meet the requirements.
Tsatsawane explained that 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 process took longer than anticipated but is now nearing completion,” he said.
Tsatsawane added:
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.Jangbahadur, 40, was one of 250 frustrated doctors who trained in countries like China, Italy, Mauritius and Russia, who marched in their scrubs to the council’s offices in Pretoria this week.
They came from as far as Mpumalanga, Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and the Free State to complain that they were yet to practise, despite completing their training.
“When my father died, he said I should make something of myself and study medicine. I was already a qualified IT engineer and working in the UK,” said Jangbahadur, who is from Durban.
He has been struggling to get a board exam date after graduating in 2020 from China’s Hebei North Medical Surgery in Zhangjiako, near the Mongolian border, west of Beijing.
“I have sent several emails to HPCSA, but they never respond,” he said.
Unemployed doctors marched to the Union Buildings on Wednesday. Yoliswa Sobuwa/News24 Jangbahadur, who claimed he now depends on his mother’s pension, said this setback had taken a punishing toll on him emotionally.
The group of doctors handed to the HPCSA a memorandum claiming that since 2020, hundreds of foreign medical graduates tendered their applications to write the board exams which would enable them to start practising in the country but not a single one of them was invited to write it.
Their demands to the council 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 to 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.
The HPCSA’s head of department, David Mametja, accepted the memorandum and apologised to the doctors.
Dr Saarroh Ebrahim, 25, who studied in Russia and completed her studies in January this year, flew from Cape Town to be part of the protest.
“I cannot work in a hospital without registering with the HPCSA,” she said, adding that people constantly remark that she studied abroad but was unemployed.
Dr Nomathemba Tshabalala, 25, from Bethlehem in the Free State, studied in Russia, and graduated in October last year.
“I saw the opportunity as a beacon of hope to be a change-maker. However, we now have degrees gathering dust,” she said.
“I sent my documents to the HPCSA, but nothing happened. I have been sitting and doing nothing at home for almost a year,” Tshabalala said.
Department of health spokesperson Foster Mohale said they were aware of the plight of South African foreign-qualified medical doctors.
“We have since been assured that the date of the exam will be issued soon by the council and that a second round of exams will accommodate those on the waiting list to enable all qualified doctors eligible for placement as medical interns,” he said.
The department of health is tasked with administering the allocation of medical interns and community service doctors yet every year graduating medical students and junior doctors struggle to be placed in the public health sector.
This is despite a shortage of doctors working in the ailing public sector and several others choosing to work abroad where salaries and working conditions are far more lucrative.
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