Question NW688 to the Minister of Health
02 April 2024 - NW688
Clarke, Ms M to ask the Minister of Health
Whether, with reference to an apparent dispute regarding the treatment of a patient at Ngwelezana Hospital in KwaZulu-Natal in January 2017 (details furnished), in respect of which Dr Morton J Abrams alleges that the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) failed to properly investigate and/or properly handle the matter and help him resolve the issue of his Account Support Page on the Practitioners Portal acknowledging that there are no records of complaint against him, while a Certificate of Status from July 2019 states otherwise, his department will (a) assist the doctor to get to the bottom of his queries and allegations and (b) address the alleged failures of HPCSA; if not, why not; if so, (i) in what way and (ii) what are the further relevant details?
Reply:
a) According to the HPCSA, the case of treatment of a patient at Ngwelezana Hospital in KwaZulu-Natal was duly investigated. The case was considered by the Preliminary Committee of Inquiry and finalised in line with applicable regulations. The outcome of the Inquiry was communicated to both the complainant and the respondent. In terms of the query related to the Certificate of Status (COS), the issue of a pending case against the practitioner was resolved internally and a clean COS was subsequently issued (clean COS for Case no. 25504608 was issued on 7 August 2023);
b) (i) There were delays in the finalisation of the case. This was due to the referral of the practitioner to the Health Committee of the Board for consideration of possible impairments that the practitioner may have had before the case was finalized. This is a necessary step in HPCSA’s internal processes. Also, there were system errors that led to the COS indicating a “pending complaint” against the practitioner when that was not the case;
(ii) Following this case, processes of referral between Committees were reviewed and subsequently streamlined. A new online complaints management system was introduced which allows for ease of monitoring of cases and proper tracking by both complainants and respondents, with regular updates.
END.