Less talk, more action
ON ITS website, the Health Professions Council of South Africa states that it is a statutory body which “is committed to protecting the public and guiding the professions”.
It adds that it is also committed to “setting and maintaining excellent standards of ethical and professional practice”.
These are nice words, and will remain just words – unless the council acts on them.
How does the council think it is promoting the maintenance of “excellent standards of ethical and professional practice” when, as reported on Page 5 today, all it can come up with as a sanction for the repeated defrauding of medical aids by a doctor is a R20 000 fine?
Membership of medical aids is not cheap, even at the lower end of the spectrum, but South Africans still make it a priority to belong to a scheme, to not leave themselves and their families at the mercy of the public health service.
Might their monthly premiums not be a lot lower if medical schemes did not have to worry about being ripped off by doctors?
A R20 000 fine for 26 counts of fraud – with no suspension from practising – does not even amount to a slap on the wrist. Why does the council treat its members with kid gloves, when its mandate is to look after the interests of the public?
PERHAPS part of the answer is to be found at the head of the council itself. Council president Dr Kgosi Letlape was recently criticised for saying that medical aids were a crime against humanity, which might explain why his organisation is unwilling to take meaningful action against those found guilty of defrauding schemes.
The report of an in-depth ministerial investigation of the council released last year found the body to be in a “state of continual dysfunction and chaos”, its CEO and COO unfit for office.
However, the council resisted implementing the findings‚ saying it would conduct its own investigation.
Perhaps the council would have more success regulating its members if it first worked at setting and maintaining standards of professional practice for itself.