DA calls on Department of Health to ensure release of results of 100 foreign qualified doctors

13 May 2020

The Democratic Alliance (DA) welcomes the decision by the Medical and Dental Board (MDB) to convene an urgent meeting in order to deliberate on the results of the 100 foreign qualified doctors who wrote their practical exams in January 2020.

These doctors, many of them South Africans, were supposed to receive their results at the end of March. However, the Health Professionals Council of South Africa (HPCSA) informed them that all MDB board meetings were cancelled due to the Covid-19 lockdown.

Many of these doctors have reached out to the DA to raise their concerns about the MDB’s delays in convening a meeting as they were eager to join the health efforts against Covid-19. It is unfortunate that it has taken the MDB almost two months to convene a meeting in order to deliberate on the results when South Africa finds itself knee-deep in a pandemic.

South Africa is in such a need for medical personnel that the Government enlisted the services of 214 Cuban doctors at a staggering cost of almost R500 million. This while there are doctors in South Africa who were eager and ready to fill the trenches and fight the Covid-19 pandemic, if only the Board’s unwillingness to adapt to the times did not stand in their way.

South Africa’s health system has been under immense pressure for a long time. The pandemic is widening the cracks into chasms. The country needs every willing and able hand on deck to screen and test as many people as possible for Covid-19, and to give the best of care those infected with the virus.

The DA wishes all the 100 doctors all the best as they wait for the release of their results and we trust that the results will be released as soon as possible.

Issued by Haseena Ismail, DA Member on the Portfolio Committee of Health, 13 May 2020