HPCSA ordered to restore radiologist's status

2012-06-13 09:46

Pretoria - The Health Professions Council of SA (HPCSA) was on Tuesday ordered by the North Gauteng High Court to restore the full registration status of a Limpopo radiologist.

Acting Judge Pieter van der Byl granted an order setting aside a May 2010 decision by the Medical and Dental Professions Board that Darius Tsatsi had to work under supervision in an academic training hospital for 12 months.

He also ordered the council to unconditionally restore Tsatsi's full registration status. The order was granted by agreement between the parties, but did not include the public apology initially demanded by Tsatsi.

Tsatsi was trained at the Natal and Witwatersrand Universities and qualified as a radiologist in 1996. He moved to Canada in 2005, but was stopped from practising when the Canadian health ministry ordered a review of his work, because of concerns about his interpretations.

He said in an affidavit that Medunsa had awarded him the status of professor in 2001 and he had also served as head of the radiology departments at Medunsa and Wits University.

Doctor for almost 30 years

Tsatsi started the first black mammography practice in South Africa in 1999 and joined the University of Limpopo in 2009 on his return from Canada. He currently heads the university's radiology department.

Tsatsi said he had been a doctor for almost 30 years without any complaints ever being laid against him, including before he went to Canada and after his return.

He said the decision to partially suspend him had never been preceded by any complaint that he was aware of, or any disciplinary process. Tsatsi was also never given a chance to defend himself, was never found guilty of unprofessional conduct and was condemned in his absence.

He submitted the decision had been procedurally unfair, biased and seemed to have been taken because of the "unauthorised or unwarranted dictates" of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Saskatchewan.

According to Tsatsi he had been treated unfairly in Canada.

He said both the SA Radiology Society and College of Radiologists of SA indicated they were satisfied with his standard of practice and that he could continue practising and training radiologists in South Africa.

- SAPA