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Health Professsions Council silent about doctors accused of culpable homicide

This is an update about our October/November 2017 complaints to the Health Professions Council of South Africa against Groote Schuur and Western Cape Health Department doctors and officials (see elsewhere in this blog). This is the text of the email to the legal department's record officer Sylvia Makgwadi on March 4:

"In her email of 30/10/208 Keabetswe Mokwena told me she would contact me in December to inform me of the preliminary inquiry's decision. She did not, and her automatic reply to my last email of January 15 stated she's no longer with complaints.

I've heard nothing from anyone since. Obviously, the HPCSA doesn't care or is too dysfunctional, inept and/or captured.

Nevertheless, please give me the name and contact numbers of the legal officer assigned, that is, if one was and/or ask him/her to call me. In the event you or anyone is bothered to reply, I'm not interested in excuses so please spare me that.

Due to your recalcitrance I have two options: giving it up as a bad job or wasting money on a lawyer's letter forcing you to do your jobs and follow the law you're meant to uphold. In either case, I'm reluctant to throw good money after bad.

For information, I notified the OHSC (Stella Hartzenberg) of the case and mentioned Mokwena reneged on her promise to contact me (violation of just administrative action) and the HPCSA apparently making the case dormant."

There was no response at the time of writing.

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