The Department of Home Affairs has recently updated its critical skills list. These skills fall under the Immigration Act No.13 of 2002.
This Act aims to regulate the entry of individuals into, their stay in, and their exit from the Republic as well as matters related to it.
Adding to the list from February 2022, dozens of new skills have been included. The expansion now encompasses specialist medical practitioners.
Those who diagnose, treat, and prevent illness, disease, injury, and other physical and mental disabilities are classified as such professionals.
“They specialise in certain disease categories, types of patient or methods of treatment and may conduct medical education and research in their chosen areas of specialisation,” said the department.
This allows for the entry of rare local expertise into healthcare work. The action is commonly regarded as a pro-active response to the lack of healthcare specialists in the South African labour market, which had an impact during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Here are the added skills:
- Dentists who specialise in community dentistry, oral pathologists, facial and oral surgery, periodontics, and prosthodontics.
- Medical practitioners who specialise in anaesthesiology, cardiothoracic surgery, clinical pharmacology, public health, dermatology, diagnostic radiology, emergency medicine, medicine, neurology, neurosurgery, obstetrics and gynaecology, ophthalmology, orthopaedics, otorhinolaryingology, and paediatrics.
- Pathologists who specialise in anatomical, chemical, clinical, forensic, haematological, microbiological, and virological pathology.
- Medical practitioners who also specialise in plastic and reconstructive surgery, psychiatry, radiation oncology, and industrial pharmacy.