A foreign doctor's experiences with the HPCSA.

To the Editor: Mr Mkhize's letter 1 in response to the Editor's comments 2 on the performance of the Health Professions Council of South Africa makes interesting reading. One might have expected the registrar and CEO of our professional registration body to substantiate his defence of the performance of his institution by providing structured evidence, such as a 'customer' satisfaction survey or auditing results. In the absence of such evidence, I have to rely on my personal experiences with the HPCSA. At best these have been frustrating. Never, since I first made contact with this institution in 2003, have I experienced timely, appropriate or well-informed service. I have written a detailed narrative of my experiences during the process of my registration as medical practitioner and family physician, which included visiting the HPCSA premises some 20 times from Rustenburg to 'get things going'. I would honestly love to hear from any medical practitioner who wholeheartedly applauds the HPCSA for its performance. To use a more recent example, however, I would like to outline the events around my application to have my (German) Master of Public Health (MPH) degree recognised by the HPCSA. I personally submitted an application to this effect at the HPCSA offices in Pretoria in October 2007, at which time I also paid the respective fees. I received a letter dated 29.11.2007, acknowledging receipt of the application and its assessment by a subcommittee. Several further attempts (by telephone, fax and e-mail) to enquire about the matter were futile, until finally a complaint to the '[email protected]' address was answered in May 2009. Recently I received a letter (dated 11.09.2009) stating that the Executive Committee of the Council in a meeting on 10.07.2009 noted that the same committee in a meeting in February 2008 had considered my application and recommended approval. What this in fact means is that my application lay in some file for 15 months without any further action. I don't want to appear ungrateful: I am glad that the documents were finally rediscovered. Better still, the Council is apparently also busy recovering my application regarding my doctorate (I quote from a recent email: 'I am still trying to find out what happened to your application of the recognition of Dr. Med because the copy of your application is in your file but it does seem like it was served at any of the meetings of the relevant committee'). …