Johannesburg – As many as 21 emergency care officers from the Limpopo Department of Health have been struck off the register by the Health Professional Council of South Africa (HPCSA) and can no longer practice.
The department said Saturday it “regrets the decision it had to take to part ways with 21 emergency medical officers”.
The department added: “The move came after the department was informed by the HPCSA that these employees had been deregistered from the council after failing to meet the required standards to remain active members of the council.
“According to regulations, this means that the implicated officers are no longer allowed to work as emergency medical officers.
“It is for this reason that the department was left with no choice but to terminate their employment.”
The terminated employees had challenged the HPCSA in court through their labour unions which they unfortunately lost.
The department said 46 other emergency medical officers have also been requested to provide proof of their registration with the HPCSA.
The request follows the results of an HPCSA audit on the registration status of Emergency Medical Services (EMS) personnel.
Should these emergency medical officers fail to prove their registration with the HPCSA, their services may be terminated, the department warned.
The department said it “had hoped that the matter between the council and the employees would be settled without having to terminate them”.
After the termination of the 21 employees, the department said it will be left with 1 494 emergency care officers at the basic life and intermediate life support level, which will result in an impact of only 1,4%.
As the festive seasons are fast approaching, the department said “it would have loved to have all hands on deck” to deal with any emergency cases that will require any level of EMS response.
“Unfortunately, that could not be because as part of their employment contracts, healthcare professionals are required to keep active registration statuses with their various regulatory bodies to legitimise their permission to work with patients,” said the department.
These councils include the HPCSA, the South African Nursing Council, the Pharmacy Council, and others.
In terms of the Health Professions Act, a practitioner who does not hold a current registration and maintains this status is not allowed to continue practicing in such a profession.
An unregistered practitioner is not allowed to conduct clinical work and doing so amounts to a breach of their regulatory requirements and employment contracts.
The department said it will continue to check on the registration status of various health professionals to make sure they were properly registered to practice.
