Doctors rally against registration fee increases

Doctors have resorted to signing a petition to try and stop the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) from yet again increasing registration fees, as they now have to fork out an additional 13%, but claim the council is never available to assist them.

The HPCSA has again increased registration fees but unlike the 15% increase imposed on only the medical and dental board, the new fees for this year apply to all boards, including dieticians, psychologists, emergency care practitioners, occupational therapists and optometrists.

The fees, which were gazetted last month, range from R531 for a medical intern to up to R7 446 for a medical or dental specialist.

A psychologist would have to fork out R1 616 while a visiting psychology student has to pay a
registration fee of R813.

In an online petition – which has garnered more than 23 000 signatures – medical practitioners say the hike is unfair. It totals up to nearly 30% in the past two years.

“It is unjustifiable to raise the registration fees by this amount once again, as doctors across the
country struggle for weeks and months to obtain documentation from the HPCSA,” said Louie Kuhn, who started the petition.

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“Calls and e-mails go unanswered for weeks. HPCSA services are becoming increasingly automated and more employees are working from home. Surely this amounts to a decrease in running costs and should amount to a drop in registration fees.”

These sentiments were shared among all frustrated medical practitioners, said Dr Erick Tankama, a registered medical officer in the public sector.

“As such, we have not really had any salary increment of note.

“Adding to the difficult times of Covid, it is actually extremely insensitive of the HPCSA to increase our registration fees yearly regardless of the economical circumstances the whole country is under. On top of this, their service to register practitioners is not up to standard,” said Tankama.

Former chair of the SA Medical Association, Dr Angelique Coetzee, said the fees were for administrative purposes and to take on any medical litigation doctors might face.

But it seems medical professionals have now lost trust in the HPCSA despite having had meetings with the council in October last year to discuss the exorbitant registration fees.

“These fees are used for day-to-day admin and workings of the HPCSA – so it’s administrative
costs. But the major expenditure was the board and the professional conduct – a big chunk of the money went to medical litigation against medical professional conduct,” said Coetzee