Overseas-qualified doctors get board exam go-ahead

A group of 77 South African doctors who qualified overseas but wanted to practise locally have won a battle to write their board exams, via the Health Professions Council of SA (HPCSA), according to News24. ‘Our clients complained of prejudice in that they were forced to wait months and in some cases, even years before they were permitted to write the board examination,’ the Legal Resources Centre (LRC) said. After intervening, the LRC was told that the HPCSA imposed a limit of 120 graduates who could write the board exam at any one of its two scheduled sittings a year. The limit appeared to be because the venue could only hold so many people at one time. ‘The LRC view was that the imposition of the limit on the number of graduates was arbitrary and inconsistent with the Health Professions Act as well as the lack of qualified medical professionals in our stressed public health service,’ the centre said. After extensive communication, the LRC said it would approach the courts if the HPCSA did not permit all graduates who satisfied the minimum requirements to write the exams. The HPCSA backtracked and the graduates are expected to write their exams at the next sitting in October/November.