DO NOT be surprised if you walk into a hospital this week and find that there are no doctors or paramedics to help you.
DO NOT be surprised if you walk into a hospital this week and find that there are no doctors or paramedics to help you.
The healthcare practitioners are not on strike but have been stripped of their licences to practise after they failed to pay their annual registration fees.
The Health Professions Council of South Africa deregistered more than 12800 medicos yesterday. The list includes physicians, dentists, occupational therapists, psychologists, optometrists and emergency care practitioners.
Bertha Peters-Scheepers, spokesperson for the HPCSA, said: "The deadline for registration was April 1. Doctors had more than four months to pay the fees."
It is a criminal offence in terms of the Health Professions Act of 1974 to practise without a licence. Under the Act registration with the HPCSA is a prerequisite to practise in the country.
HPCSA registrar Boyce Mkhize said: "We are cautioning them against practising without HPCSA registration.
"We realise that some of our practitioners are unemployed or are not practising, and we appeal to those practitioners to apply for voluntary erasure before April 1 of that year to avoid penalty fees."
HEALTH COUNCIL BANS MEDICOS
DO NOT be surprised if you walk into a hospital this week and find that there are no doctors or paramedics to help you.
DO NOT be surprised if you walk into a hospital this week and find that there are no doctors or paramedics to help you.
The healthcare practitioners are not on strike but have been stripped of their licences to practise after they failed to pay their annual registration fees.
The Health Professions Council of South Africa deregistered more than 12800 medicos yesterday. The list includes physicians, dentists, occupational therapists, psychologists, optometrists and emergency care practitioners.
Bertha Peters-Scheepers, spokesperson for the HPCSA, said: "The deadline for registration was April 1. Doctors had more than four months to pay the fees."
It is a criminal offence in terms of the Health Professions Act of 1974 to practise without a licence. Under the Act registration with the HPCSA is a prerequisite to practise in the country.
HPCSA registrar Boyce Mkhize said: "We are cautioning them against practising without HPCSA registration.
"We realise that some of our practitioners are unemployed or are not practising, and we appeal to those practitioners to apply for voluntary erasure before April 1 of that year to avoid penalty fees."