Dr Yash Naidoo, Dentolegal Consultant at Medical Protection Society, provides an overview of the HPCSA’s crackdown on CPD and how healthcare practitioners can become compliant with their CPD requirements.

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Continuing Professional Development (CPD) has been a legal requirement under the Health Professions Act for all registered healthcare practitioners in South Africa for years. Yet, despite this, many practitioners seem to have fallen behind or have simply not met their CPD requirements.

In a notice issued in August last year, the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) reported that only 33% of practitioners registered under the Medical and Dental Professions Board were compliant with their CPD requirements. While this figure has since improved, the compliance rate remains below 50% - a situation the HPCSA has strongly criticised.

The low compliance rate has prompted the HPCSA to take decisive action. In an effort to achieve full CPD compliance, it has reminded practitioners that non-compliance by 31 March this year may result in their names being submitted to the relevant professional boards, which may take disciplinary measures including supervised practice, board examinations, or possible suspension.

Practitioners who are suspended must cease practising immediately. To lift the suspension, they may need to pay a restoration fee, and meet any additional conditions set by their professional board. Practising without active registration is illegal and may result in fines or imprisonment of up to a year. Additionally, professional indemnity may be contingent upon active registration, meaning that practising while suspended could leave practitioners personally liable for any claims arising during that period.

The announcement has created a sense of urgency among practitioners, with many actively enrolling in CPD courses, reaching out to the HPCSA for guidance, and working with accredited service providers to ensure their compliance by 31 March deadline.

How to become CPD compliant

The CPD programme requires most healthcare practitioners to accumulate a minimum number of Continuing Education Units (CEUs) per 12-month period, depending on their profession.

The specific CEU requirements for each profession are outlined in the HPCSA guidelines, with a breakdown provided in a detailed table available on their website.

For example, medical doctors and dentists need a minimum of 30 CEUs. Of the total required CEUs for doctors and dentists, a minimum of 25 must comprise clinical CEUs, while a minimum of five must relate to ethics, human rights, and medical law.

Practitioners should check the CPD guidelines on the HPCSA’s website to ensure they meet the specific requirements for their profession.

Each CEU is valid for 12 months from the date that the activity took place or ended, thus the CEUs have a ‘shelf life’ of 12 months. This means that practitioners should aim to maintain a continuous accumulation of CEUs, ensuring compliance with the required threshold before any units expire.

Even if practitioners believe they are compliant, they are encouraged to check their real-time CPD status via the HPCSA’s Online Services portal. This portal should list all CPD courses a practitioner has undertaken. If any records are missing, practitioners should liaise with their CPD service provider to ensure that all relevant evidence of recent CPD activity has been submitted to the HPCSA for accurate record-keeping.

While CPD service providers usually submit evidence of accredited CPD activity to the HPCSA on behalf of practitioners, it is ultimately the responsibility of each individual to verify that their CPD records are accurate and up to date by regularly checking their status on the HPCSA’s Online Services portal.

Practitioners can obtain CEUs within their own discipline, specialty, or subspecialty, or within another relevant field, as confirmed by the CPD guidelines. However, those registered for community service, as registrars, or undergoing internship training are exempt from CPD compliance during their respective training periods.

Options for meeting CPD requirements

For time-constrained practitioners – who likely represent a significant portion of healthcare professionals in South Africa – various accredited online CPD providers offer flexible options.

MPS, as a recognised CPD service provider, offers more than 30 hours of accredited CPD content, available through its Online Learning Hub.

There are a range of courses available on the Online Learning Hub across a broad range of topics including medicolegal issues, clinical risk management, improving communication, ethics, mental wellbeing and much more.

All these courses have been developed by the MPS Risk Prevention team in collaboration with its expert medicolegal and dentolegal colleagues across the organisation to ensure the highest quality education that helps practitioners reduce their risk and maintain regulatory compliance.

All courses are at no extra cost for MPS members and can be completed online at a time convenient to each practitioner.

Additionally, MPS submits evidence of CPD activity directly to the HPCSA on a monthly basis, ensuring that CEUs are allocated to practitioners’ registration profiles and reducing the administrative burden.

The benefits of CPD

CPD should not be seen as a mere regulatory obligation or a box-ticking exercise. Rather, it is designed to ensure that healthcare practitioners continuously update their skills, knowledge, and expertise, ultimately enhancing the quality of patient care.

By maintaining CPD compliance, practitioners contribute to improving South Africa’s healthcare system and upholding the highest standards of professional care.

All practitioners should therefore prioritise CPD, not just to meet the 31 March deadline but to sustain professional growth and maintain high standards of patient care in the years to come.

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This article was originally published in Juta Medical Brief and is republished with permission.