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The South African Medical Association (SAMA) is outraged at the Health Professions Council of South Africa's (HPCSA) decision to increase the annual professional fees for doctors and dentists to 15%.
Earlier this month, the HPCSA resolved that it would not increase the annual fees from the previous year for 11 Professional Boards, except for the Medical and Professions Board, which was gazetted last Friday.
SAMA Chairperson, Doctor Angelique Coetzee, said it showed an absolute disregard for the financial stress of these healthcare workers who have been at the frontline of the covid-19 pandemic.
She said the increase makes an absurd assumption that doctors and dentists are immune to covid-19's financial implications,, despite being forced to severely cut down on consultations.
Coetzee said, "We think it is totally outrageous," and "We understand that the doctors and dentists are the majority of the income for the HPCSA."
"SAMA also wrote a letter about two weeks ago where we urged the HPCSA to please not increase the fees higher than CPI. You need to understand that the public sector had no increase on their salaries and the private sector had an average increase of about 3%, which is virtually nothing on a consultation fee," she said.
Meanwhile, several other health organisations made up of Doctors, Dentists, and Specialists in KwaZulu-Natal objected to what they called a discriminatory and exorbitant fee increase.
The groups made up of the KZN Doctors Health Coalition and KZN Specialist Network amongst others called for Health Minister, Zweli Mkhize and President Ramaphosa to review the decision.
