The Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) said it is not purposely impeding the integration of South African doctors who have obtained their medical degrees abroad.
The Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) said it is not purposely impeding the integration of South African doctors who have obtained their medical degrees abroad.
The South African Internationally Trained Health Professionals Association (Saithpa), which represents a group of doctors who completed their medical training in countries outside South Africa, has voiced concerns over the administration of medical examinations for foreign-qualified applicants.
As a result of limited spaces in medical schools in South Africa, some medical students travel abroad to obtain their medical degrees and return to South Africa to practise. Upon their return, they have to go through credibility exams to be allowed to practise in the country.
HPCSA is the regulatory body that ascertains the competency levels of medical practitioners through theory and practical exams, currently administered by the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN).
Saithpa had claimed that their members’ pass rate had drastically decreased to 40% since the HPCSA board exams had been affiliated with UKZN. The exams were previously affiliated with Gauteng’s Sefako Makgatho University.
In a joint statement, the HPCSA and UKZN said the allegations are untrue.
“Not only are these egregious distortions, but they are also harmful and defamatory. There are no grounds for the outlandish and brazen misinformation peddled, especially by Saithpa,” the statement reads.
Advocate Rene Govender, Saithpa’s legal desk chairperson, said they represent more than 900 doctors and many of them have gone into internship due to the lack of integration.
“From Sefako Makgatho University we had a good pass rate average that showed that Sefako Makgatho University was doing work in terms of testing and setting examinations,” she said.
Govender said the HPCSA did not want to take accountability.
“There is a deeper and more sinister thing to this and we want to get to the bottom of it,” she said.
She said Saithpa had attempted to access the foreign-trained doctors’ Medical Board Examinations scripts to help them understand the high failure rate.
The HPCSA, responding to the pass rate concerns, said “it is outrageous and insulting to suggest, without evidence, that both HPCSA and UKZN would manipulate the pass rate to not exceed 40%”.
“The allegation is not supported by facts at all. Inasmuch as most applicants underperform on the theory exams, the performance on the practical exam is more than satisfactory most of the time.
Pass rates of 94% and 61% were achieved for the practical exams held respectively on the 5th and 6th December 2023 and the 7th and 8th May 2024.”
The council said in response to demands for access, UKZN, the entity in possession of the exam documents’ intellectual property, denied them under the Promotion of Access to Information Act section 29(3).
“Intellectual property of the University of KwaZulu-Natal is owned by the HPCSA, and making it available in print and digital formats would compromise the integrity of the testing procedure. In order to uphold the university’s obligation to safeguard its examination system, HPCSA provides supervised access to examine the records at the designated institution.”
Govender, however, said the graduates wrote the exam and answered the questions and therefore they own the copyright and intellectual property rights.
“What the HPCSA does not understand is that we have taken them to court in terms of accessing the exam reports. They still did not supply the records to one of the graduates. If they say we cannot access the records we are prepared to go to court and I know that the court will rule in our favour,” said Govender.
The Mercury