COMMERCIAL LAW: Location of doctors’ rooms now governed by the state

Some medical practitioners will no doubt be chagrined to hear that the president recently signed into law certain sections of the National Health Act that have been dormant for quite some time which makes the location of any “health establishment” (the term is defined very widely and includes any doctor’s practice) subject to the discretion of the Department of Health. One of the stated goals of this legislation is to “promote an equitable distribution and rationalisation of health services and health care resources, and the need to correct inequities based on racial, gender, economic and geographical factors.” It is not entirely clear yet to what extent the Department will make use of this new power, but in theory it will certainly have the power to force a medical practitioner to move his rooms to any place in the country that the Department sees fit. Failure to comply will not only result in the certificate being withheld, but it will also constitute a criminal offence with a maximum sentence of five years’ imprisonment.

Practicing with a certificate will become compulsory from April 2016 and will no doubt be met with considerable opposition in the next two years. One has to wonder whether the approach adopted is not somewhat excessive and heavy-handed – especially in an essential industry such as healthcare that has already suffered massive attrition and skills shortages due to mass immigration by properly trained staff.

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