The Citizen reports that doctors have resorted to signing a petition to try and stop the Health Professions Council of SA (HPCSA) from yet again increasing registration fees.

They now have to fork out an additional 13%, but claim the council is never available to assist them. The new fees for this year apply to all boards, including dieticians, psychologists, emergency care practitioners, occupational therapists and optometrists. The fees, which were gazetted last month, range from R531 for a medical intern to R7,446 for a medical or dental specialist. A psychologist will have to fork out R1,616 while a visiting psychology student has to pay a registration fee of R813. In an online petition – which has garnered more than 23,000 signatures – medical practitioners say the hike is unfair. It totals up to nearly 30% in the past two years. “It is unjustifiable to raise the registration fees by this amount once again, as doctors across the country struggle for weeks and months to obtain documentation from the HPCSA,” said Louie Kuhn, who started the petition. Former chair of the SA Medical Association (Sama), Dr Angelique Coetzee, said the fees were for administrative purposes and to take on any medical litigation doctors might face. But it seems medical professionals have now lost trust in the HPCSA despite having had meetings with the council in October last year to discuss the exorbitant registration fees.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Rorisang Kgosana at The Citizen

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