Cape Town – Six of 62 bogus doctor arrests over the past year were made in the Western Cape, the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) said.
According to HPCSA, the healthcare sector continues to battle the scourge of bogus practitioners, as its inspectorate offices throughout the country conduct random and planned operations with law enforcement agencies.
Last week Kishule Prosper Bataciramwira, a Congolese national, was nabbed for masquerading as a medical doctor and consulting with patients in Kraaifontein.
In a separate operation Effort Matanga Ncube, an unregistered Zimbabwean dentist in Randburg, was arrested.
HPCSA’s acting head of corporate affairs, Priscilla Sekhonyana, said he was arrested and detained at Honeydew SAPS.
“The council cautions bogus practitioners to desist from practising while not registered as this endangers the lives of unsuspecting patients.
“The HPCSA encourages the registration of healthcare practitioners who intend to practise in the country lawfully. Practising while not registered with the council constitutes a criminal offence according to the Health Professions Act.
“Bogus practitioners who are found to be practising without registering with the council will face the full might of the law,” said Sekhonyana.
Professor Keymanthri Moodley, director of the Centre for Medical Ethics and Law at the Department of Medicine in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Stellenbosch University, said increased vigilance across the board was necessary.
“Pharmacies need to check the HPCSA numbers of all new doctors, especially those not known to them, to verify their registration status.
“Doctors hiring locums would need to improve on their background checks even if a locum doctor is registered with a locum agency or referred by a colleague.
“Locums charging less than the industry average should raise some suspicion and lead to more thorough checks.
“Patients and civil society also need to be more vigilant when consulting doctors,” said Moodley.
Moodley said the HPCSA needed to increase its capacity and competence with respect to registration of foreign doctors and “screening of doctors in practice on a random basis to ensure no false registration numbers are being used.”
Cape Times