Cape Town - Banting diet advocate and sports scientist Tim Noakes will know towards the end of the year whether or not he can keep his licence as a medical doctor.
A hearing into his professional conduct failed to get off the ground on Thursday after the Health Professions Council of SA’s (HPCSA) professional conduct committee was declared improperly constituted.
The hearing looked into a complaint about Noakes allegedly giving dietary advice on social media.
The Association for Dietetics in SA lodged a complaint with the health council early this year. It accused Noakes of unprofessional conduct after he suggested via Twitter that a mother wean her baby with a low carbohydrate, high fat diet.
If found guilty, Noakes could lose his licence as a medical doctor.
On Thursday the hearing failed to start after Noakes’s defence questioned the compliance of the committee.
While legislation and HPCSA regulations require that at least three members of the committee be registered with the council’s medical and dental professions board, or be registered in the same discipline as Noakes, the committee had only two of the requisite members.
After arguing the technicalities of the case, advocate Joan Adams postponed the matter to November 23, saying “the committee has no powers to deviate from the Act (HPCSA) and regulations”.
“There is a problem in the sense that there is not a third person on this committee registered with the medical and dental professions board and in the same discipline as the respondent. We are lacking in one committee member,” she said.
Adams said in terms of the law, the responsibility of appointing a third, properly registered person, rested solely on the chairperson of the medical and dental professions board.
Cape Argus