New clinics may pose health risk

A LARGE hospital group is setting up GP clinics, and is doing what pharmacies have been doing – hiring nurses who examine patients. At the end, dispensing is done from the pharmacy.

They are not supposed to be dispensing scheduled medication.

Doctors are regulated by the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA). They have to belong to certain professional bodies, subscribe to peer review, attend medical education classes, and have medical protection.

As doctors are highly regulated and accountable, their patients have recourse.

Who regulates the nurses practising in the pharmacies, hospital groups, chemist groups and pharmaceutical chains? Are they regulated?

Nurses don’t fall under the HPCSA. What expertise and knowledge does the nursing council have to regulate these nurses?

Do the nurses have to have medical malpractice liability?

What If the nurse makes an error, or the pharmacy makes an error and a patient goes into anaphylactic shock from an injection for example?

What medical training do the pharmacists and nurses have? Who’s going to protect the patients?

Pharmacies can, and are interested, in selling other products unrelated to medication or health care. This enables them to use the consultation fee, or the lack of it, to bring in patients, so that while they are in the pharmacy, they buy these ancillary products and generate profit.

Hospitals are interested in admissions. The clinics will serve nicely to undermine GPs. They will get patients into their clinics by underwriting or subsidising the consultation fees. And then patients will be admitted to hospitals belonging to that group.

The HPCSA finds nothing unprofessional in the conduct. Or are we waiting to find out whether this falls under the definition of unprofessional practice?

This is going to lead to immigration, reduce and undermine GPs and put many the jobs of people who work in GP practices under threat. What about the patient’s protection?