The council that gives foreign-qualified doctors permission to practise in South Africa continues to frustrate these professionals, the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) has reportedly said.

The Health Professions Council of South Africa’s registration procedures “are flawed and unnecessary”, TAC general secretary Anele Yawa was quoted as saying in a June 2018 report in the Citizen newspaper.  

The TAC campaigns for better public healthcare in South Africa.

And with South Africa introducing universal health care, these processes were “an insult” to patients turned away from public facilities because there weren’t enough doctors,Yawa added.

He said there was “an unacceptable ratio of one doctor to over 4,000 patients” in public healthcare. “In the private healthcare sector, we are dealing with a ratio of one doctor to less than 300 patients.”

Is healthcare inequality in South Africa this bad? We looked at both figures…..more