Volume 08 No 048

21 December 2011

Dispensing doctors will not have to renew their licenses for 2012 while legislation pertaining to dispensing licence renewals is being amended.

The Director-General Health for Health, Ms Precious Matsoso, has given official notice to the National Convention n Dispensing (NCD) that the need for dispensing doctors to renew their dispensing licenses for 2012 has been postponed for one year to enable amendments to Section 22D and Regulation 20 of the Medicines and Related Substances Act (1965) to be processed.

In a letter to NCD chairman, Dr Norman Mabasa, the D-G reported that the Department of Health had considered amendments suggested by the NCD and intended to adjust the regulations in terms of licence renewals accordingly.

All that dispensing doctors will be required to do when renewing their annual licence – the fee for which has dropped from R800 initially down to R200 – once the amendments are in place, will be to provide evidence of their registration with the HPCSA and make their premises available for inspection to monitor compliance with the legislation.

In welcoming this development, the NCD – of which SAMA is a senior founding member - has reminded its membership that the “evolution of law” has almost gone full circle in this instance. When the new democratic government announced its health policy in the mid-1990’s, it planned to prevent doctors from dispensing altogether. This resulted in the establishment of the NCD to meet this challenge.

More than a decade and a drawn out court battle later, the doctor’s right to dispense was accepted by government but with stringent licensing provisos. These included a high fee for the annual licence in addition to the doctor having to pay for advertising space in a local newspaper to publicly announce the licence renewal application.

Also making the point that these recent developments clearly indicate that patience and good negotiating tactics – and not running to court – will win in the end, Dr Mabasa added that all that remained now between the NCD and government was to settle on a dispensing fee.

The NCD proposal on the dispensing fees is that it be amended to 30% of SEP for any item up to R120.00 capped at R36.00 thereafter - a far cry from the beginning of the NCD challenge when the dispensing fee for medical practitioners and dentists was 16% for any item up to R100.00  and capped at R16.00 beyond R100.00.