Seventy-seven doctors who trained overseas have successfully taken on the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) after waiting months to write their medical board exams.
In order practise as a medical professional in South Africa medical graduates must pass the local examination.
Frustrated by the delay of months and in some cases years in writing the exam the doctors took their case to the Legal Resources Centre (LRC).
Lead attorney Sharita Samuels says they were told by the HPCSA that it had imposed a limit of 120 graduates to write the board examination each year.
None of the reasons given were consistent with the Health Professions Act.
— Sharita Samuels, Lead attorney - Legal Resources Centre
There were a plethora of reasons put forward that were of no assistance to the students some who had graduated in 2017.
— Sharita Samuels, Lead attorney - Legal Resources Centre
These are students are who have studied with no financial burden to the state at all.
— Sharita Samuels, Lead attorney - Legal Resources Centre
Following the intervention by the LRC the HPCSA has agreed the doctors will be able to write the examinations at the next sitting.
They will write in October.
— Sharita Samuels, Lead attorney - Legal Resources Centre
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