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Category:
Insurance
News /
Medical
Aid /
August 2008
Optometrists & SA Public Outraged Over New Regulation
The South
African public's access to optometric services could be
disadvantaged as the Ethical Rules of Conduct for Health Professions
will prevent optometrists from sharing premises with other
businesses. Yet sharing resources such as premises and overheads
enables these practitioners to provide access to high quality and
convenient healthcare for the South African public.
The Health
Professions Council of South Africa (HSPCA) plans to reintroduce
this rule in an apparent attempt to keep the commercial element out
of optometry, ensure optometrists retain their clinical
independence, as well as protect patient confidentiality.
Smaller
professional optometry practices have prospered and grown by sharing
premises with businesses not registered in terms of the Act without
any negative impact on their professionalism. This amendment will
result in many optometrists that already share their rooms with
other businesses to relocate or close their doors.
Rene Very of
Rene Very Optometrists disputes the intentions of the proposed
change, stating that the sharing of premises is not a threat to the
ethical rules of professional practice. "The fact that our
businesses are available to the public in this way means that our
high standard of professional service is more accessible at
affordable prices," Vrey comments.
Rene Vrey
Optometrists Inc., a growing optometry business, and Vision
Operations Pty. Ltd., a retailer of sunglasses and readers, will be
heavily impacted on by this amendment. Both businesses have shared
premises with Dis-Chem Pharmacy for some time which is located
within major retail shopping malls across South Africa.
Optometrists
have shared premises with other businesses for many years in an
effort to increase accessibility to the public, as well as lower
expenses. Historically, sharing of premises has been overlooked by
the HPCSA, however in 2006 the law was amended to permit sharing of
premises. Now the proposal, if implemented, would change the statics
again.
The
amendment to the regulation appears to overlook other health
professions in similar situations. Biokineticists that share rooms
in gymnasiums are exempted from the amendment in what may appear to
be an unfair and inconsistent application of the rules of conduct
that applies to these various professions under the Act.
Their
apparent exemption from this rule of conduct could bring
optometrists seeking to offer their services to the South African
public up in arms. While the rule prevents optometrists from
practising under the same roof as pharmacists, it fails to prevent
those pharmacists with optometry degrees from practising optometry.
Director of
Werksmans Attorneys, Neil Kirby, says "The amendment as it has been
drafted by the HPCSA will negatively impact on a number of
constitutional rights. For one, the rights to access to healthcare
will be threatened as well as health professionals' freedom of
trade, occupation and profession since they will be restricted only
to trading under specific circumstances that may not be consistent
with the Bill of Rights."
This current
migration of South Africa's health professionals to other countries
and severe restrictions on where they can practise means that this
regulation could be seen to be counter-productive. It is important
that we facilitate circumstances to provide the best health services
to all South Africans.
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