Professional Association of Clinical Associates in South Africa

Postgraduate Diploma in Rural medicine: Call for applications 2025

Dear Colleagues, You are invited to participate in a research study that will explore clinical associate experiences in the clinical facility. Kindly respond to the questionnaire to show your interest to participate in the study. Thank you

https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=jJAbS4JVd0O6B6NtZeNJNG1F0DLFbuxOjdMjg0qqCGxUQzlXRFdEN01WMjRIRENCTEJEMFI3QzlESC4u

To: All Clinical Associates within South Africa.

Compliments of the New Year, I’m excited about what’s to come within the year.
As the Chairperson of the Professional Association of Clinical Associates in South Africa this statement
intends to provide feedback on the recent developments we’ve had as an association.
We have received a plethora of emails of fellow Clinical Associates stating that we have been silent and I
would like to reassure you that this is not so.
PACASA has been fighting many silent battles with NDOH regarding issues such as:
1. Amendment of Scope of Practice
2. Prescription Rights
3. Independence
4. Career Progression
5. Post creation
6. Better Salary packages
7. Inclusion into OSD
Without the NDoH giving us what we want there’s nothing much we can do let alone, there’s not much
that we can report on to our fellow colleagues.
We’ve been fighting for this for the past 10 years. We even took NDoH to court via public protector but
still they don’t want to comply.
Nonetheless I am thrilled and excited to see the number of individuals coming forward with ideas and
solutions on how we may achieve the 7 points mentioned above.
Numerous Stakeholders like HPCSA, SAHPRA, RUDASA, Medical Aid companies, Professional
Development organisations and Non-Governmental institutions are willing to support our drive and its
embarrassing and shocking when we tell them we only have 25 registered members out of 1500
graduates worldwide.
This goes without saying that if we (Clinical Associates) aren’t coming together to fight for our own
profession, then why should stakeholders even bother to support us?
I would like to further encourage individuals to utilize platforms that we create and share to make
yourself heard and further contribute to driving our Clinical Associate vision forward. This profession
belongs to each and every one of us and the moment we believe and know how valuable we are regarding
us collectively coming up with solutions: the greater the momentum; the more powerful the solutions
and the happier we will be within our profession.
I would love this year to be filled with more Clinical Associates with the necessary drive, courage and
confidence to strategically plan and implement methods to achieve what we set ourselves to achieve. We
are powerful as a group and we need you, we need each and every one of you now more than ever.
I wish us all a prosperous and progressive new year.

Thank you to the ongoing support and communication thus far.
Continue to utilize our email address [email protected] to share ideas, complete the membership
form and request information.

Yours Truly,
Edwin Leballo
PACASA: Chairperson

Check out what Clinical Associates in South Africa are up to! AIHA supported the development of this new medical profession from 2010-2018. They are bringing quality health services to people across the country, especially in rural and underserved communities. https://conta.cc/48Ww0gi

If you couldn't attend the Clinical Associates Research Symposium, you can watch the recording at this link: https://youtu.be/2ZuHdSvH4Zc.

We are honoured to extend a formal invitation to you for the Clinical Associates Research Symposium, a pivotal event dedicated to recognising the indispensable role of Clinical Associates in our healthcare system.

RSVP: https://shorturl.at/cnsOU

PACASA is working with the National Department of Health to find solutions for unemployed Clinical Associates. To effectively do this, we need a database of all unemployed Clinical Associates who are willing to work in the public sector. If you are interested, please complete the survey

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Registration for Ultrasound Essentials 2023 is NOW OPEN.
International Society of Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology (ISUOG) & the Fetal Medicine Foundation (FMF) present a FREE 2 day online event for all clinicians working in lower resource settings on 3-4 February 2023, see https://www.isuog.org/events/isuog-and-fmf-present-ultrasound-essentials-2023.html

Once registered, lectures will be available for you to rewatch for a couple of weeks after the course.

ISUOG and FMF present Ultrasound Essentials 2023 Registration for Ultrasound Essentials 2023 is NOW OPEN. ISUOG and the Fetal Medicine Foundation (FMF) present a FREE two-day online event for all clinicians working in lower resource settings on 3-4 February 2023.

Well done 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
We salute you honorary Dr Sanele Ngcobo. PACASA’s Secretary General.

We are definitely moving towards the right direction.

South African healthcare system had to be reshaped in order to reach new heights in patient care and access to quality healthcare services.

Ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being at all ages is essential to sustainable development.
Currently, the world is facing a global health crisis unlike any other

The system needs to open to new ideas, new processes and need to welcome new team members.
Clinical Associates are coming with significant change through quality medical assessment skills, knowledge in healthcare systems, quality patient care management and more.

Over 12 years in this journey and still very optimistic and positive.

We will continue working hard until our people are properly served, posts are created and until the burden of diseases in this country has been reduced significantly.

We call for inclusion of Clinical Associates in the Vacancy list Healthcare workers in all healthcare sectors. National Department of Health (South Africa) South African National Aids Council
Youth employment, fair and equal job opportunities will drive this country towards the right direction in addressing shortage of healthcare workers, service delivery and access to quality healthcare.

Working together as a team and learning from each other will definitely lead us to higher and greater heights.

In an age where malpractice and shortage of healthcare workers threatens the lives of our community, we as PACASA aim to create a safe environment by emphasizing precautions, safety, and employment of more ClinAs, welfare of our patients and ClinAs at workplace. Professional Association of Clinical Associates in South Africa (PACASA) advocates for better healthcare system, integration, career progression, jobs and better pay for ClinAs. We might have not yet arrived at our desired destination, but we understand that this is part of the journey and the near is not too far, by the way we are actually almost there.
Yours PACASA President Edwin Leballo Wits - University of the Witwatersrand -

Kind reminder to all our members who haven’t paid their HPCSA annual fee.

You are requested to pay the outstanding fees before 30 October 2022 to avoid your names being suspended from the register of Clinical Associates by mid-November 2022 to end November 2022.

Dear Clinical Associates

The Wits Division of Clinical Associates is organizing an event in honour of celebrating the 10-year existence of the Clinical Associate profession. The Wits Clinical Associate programme started training the first cohort of students at the University of Witwatersrand in 2009. The programme trains students to become competent health care professionals that can serve the community of South Africa. The conceptualization of the profession began in 2004 by the Department of health, following intense research and the identification of comparable cadres such as the Physician Assistant in the United States of America and the Clinical Officer in various African countries.

In the United States, PA (Physician assistant) week was established to celebrate the profession and create awareness. This year, PA week is celebrated on the 6th of October 2022- 12th October. In line with this concept, the Division of Clinical Associates will be celebrating the Clinical Associate profession and its value from the 10th -14 October 2022 by having various activities in the week. The week will entail online events, in person student activations and the one-day symposium.

Event: Clinical Associate Symposium
Date: 13th of October 2022
Venue: Wits Medical School campus: Marie Curie Auditorium
Time: 0830-1500

RSVP: https://clinicalassociatesymposiu.rsvpify.com

Your valuable role is contributing immensely to the health system of South Africa and it is time to celebrate and acknowledge the great strides taken over the past decade. . Your involvement with us in the Clinical Associate 10 year celebration would be highly appreciated.

Yours Sincerely,
Aviwe Mgobozi
Acting Head of Division of Clinical Associates
Department of Family Medicine and Primary Care
School of Clinical Medicine
Faculty of Health Sciences
[email protected]

WORLD RABIES DAY

The rabies virus is contained in the saliva of a rabid animal. Most human cases of rabies involve a bite, scratch or lick by an infected dog.

All infected animals and humans that show clinical signs will die from rabies.
If you get bitten by a rabid animal, wash the wound with soap and water for 10 minutes, and quickly go to your nearest health facility to get preventive treatment.

Signs of a rabid animal include a change in behaviour, nervous symptoms, excessive saliva, aggressiveness or non-responsive behaviour. Sometimes a rabid wild animal may appear tame and lose its fear of humans.

The 3 Day rural health Conference, 2022 in Oodshoorn Western cape was a learning curve filled with fun and eye-opening experience.

PACASA deployed 4 individuals to the conference namely:
Mr Lunga Gaxa, who was part of the organising committee
Edwin Leballo, PACASA chairperson
Nompumelelo Mahlambi ( Deputy Chairperson) and Thabang Sepiroa (Secretary and Chairperson of SAUCA).
Our members presented during plenary discussions as well as Health Systems presentations and we are proud to share the following:

1. Simcelile Dee was awarded the prize as Clinical Associate of the year 2022.
2. Nompumelelo Mahlambi received an award for best presentation under health systems titled: “ How Clinical Associates and their MDT has contributed to the success and to quality of VMMC services in Western Cape.
3. Thabang Sepiroa opened a discussion on: “How COVID-19 Impacted ethical practice in the workplace”.
4. Edwin Leballo presented on “IMPACT OF ELECTRICITY SHORTAGE ON HEALTHCARE DELIVERY IN HOSPITALS A TOOL FOR POLICY AUGMENTATION & DEVELOPMENT”

PACASA leadership was also able to conduct an AGM which highlighted activities that would need to implemented, to date moving forward:

1. Increase PACASA Membership by 20% in 6 months.
2. Increase stakeholder engagements by 5% in 6 months with companies to support their Social Cooperative investment fund
3. Increase awareness of Clinical associates by hosting a Campaign that will run for 10 months, every month.
4. Resolve 3 out of 8 PACASA requests with the NDoH by January 2023.
5. Establish policies and guidelines on how to thrive in the private sector within the 6 months.
6. Have 10% of members enhancing their clinical skill or knowledge every year.
2022


. Meet again in 2023

Vacancies, x5 Clinical Associates Wits Health Consortium

Information from HPCSA regarding Continuous Professional Development.

Legislative authority
Continuous Professional Development (CPD) is a legislated programme for all registered healthcare practitioner in terms of s section 26 of HPCSA Act No. 56 of 1974 (The Act). All registered practitioners are required to comply with certain conditions relating to CPD programme as a pre-requisite for continued registration. Essentially the above means that if a healthcare practitioner is not compliant to minimum CPD requirements as determined, the HPCSA has legislative authority to ensure prohibit continue registration of reregistration of such healthcare practitioner.

Every healthcare practitioners has a responsibility to ensure that they continually update their professional knowledge and skills for the end benefit of themselves as well as to the ultimate benefit of theirs patient or clients.

Determination of compliance
Healthcare practitioners are required to accumulate Continuing Education Units (CEUs) for every CPD recognised activity, those CEUs are obtainable for a period of 12 months; inclusive for professional content, ethics, human rights and medical law. Each CEU is valid for 24 months from the date on which the activity took place.
This means that practitioners should aim to accumulate a balance of CEUs by the end of their second year of practice, and thereafter top-up on an ongoing basis.

Current developments
There is ongoing development in the CPD programme, mainly affecting the matter in which CEUs are submitted to the HPCSA in order to improve efficiency of the process. The following information provides important changes to the existing programme which practitioners must note-
• The process of randomly selecting practitioners from the HPCSA’s database to verify compliance has been discontinued. All registered practitioners are now be expected to comply with the set CPD requirements on a continuous basis.
• The online self-service platform is available on the HPCSA’s website to all registered health practitioners to submit enquiries and/or upload the required evidence of CPD compliance. Registered health practitioners can also view their CPD status online. The link below provides a step-by-step procedure on how to access the online portal: -https://www.hpcsa.co.za/Uploads/Professional_Practice/CPD/2021/CPD_Manual_for_Practitioners_2021.pdf.
• The HPCSA has approved that authorised facilitators and providers of CPD programmes to submit the attendance registers directly to the HPCSA in order to update the practitioner’s CPD profile. This has been effectively commenced for some professional boards, as implemented on 1 February 2022, while the rest of the CPD providers and facilitators agreed to commence their submission effectively on 1 March 2022.
• The issuance of Continuous Education Unit (CEUs) certificates is no longer mandatory requirements, as the information will be provided directly to the HPCSA by the approved facilitators and providers of the CPD activities.
• The online portal will remain active in order to cater for the exceptions, that is the activities not accredited by local providers, but recognised for CPD purposes, for example, when submitting certificate from international provider.
• Registered health practitioner will receive a notification, at their nominated contact, of any CPD profile updates done. Please contact the HPCSA should such notification not be received within a week of attending the CPD activity or if the CPD status is not updated according to activities attended.

Non-compliance
As practitioners are expected to meet minimum CPD requirements on an ongoing basis, the relevant professional board, at any time, may take action to all non-complying practitioners, such as-
• Changing the category of registration to supervised practice; until proof of compliance with the CPD requirements are submitted;
• Successfully passing a Board Examination;
• Suspension from the register until submission of proof of compliance with the CPD requirements is submitted; or
• Any other resolution by the relevant professional board.

South African Academy of Family Physicians invites Clinical Associates to register for the 24th National Family Practitioners congress to be held in Cape Town (19 & 20 August 2022).

https://www.saafpcongress.org.za/registration/

Research participation

"Dear Clinical Associate



I am Dr Saiendhra Moodley, registered for my PhD at University of Pretoria and my topic is "Task sharing in mental health service provision: Developing a model for clinical associates in South Africa". We hope that this research will have two main outcomes:

1. Strengthen the capacity of South Africa's health system to deliver mental health services

2. Provide more opportunities for clinical associates



If you have not done so already, I would appreciate it if you could complete a survey which forms part of the second phase of the study. Clinical associates who qualified in 2021 can now also participate! The objectives of the survey are to determine the knowledge, attitudes and practices of clinical associates with respect to management of mental illness. Qualtrics estimates the survey will take just under 17 minutes to complete. The link for the survey is:

https://pretoria.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_ebsZLrhkLkIie1M



As an incentive for participation, at the end of the questionnaire you will be given the option to be entered into a draw for one of five Takealot gift vouchers valued at R1000 each. If you select this option, you will be taken to a Google form to complete your name and contact details. The Google form is not linked to your survey responses which are anonymous. To prevent fraudulent/multiple responses, the five winners of the gift vouchers will need to provide proof of identity together with proof of their clinical associate qualification and qualification date. The survey will close on 31 July 2022 and the voucher winners will be informed on 1 August 2022."

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There is Power in Numbers, Reclaim YOUR Power by completing the PACASA Survey below:

https://forms.gle/qnmLS2UyALxtHradA

PACASA: Thoughts, Views and Ideas Survey Aims to: 1. Learn about ClinA views about PACASA. 2. Identify, establish and highlight ClinA needs in becoming members. 3. Introduce transparency and cohesion regarding PACASA activities. 4. Strengthen the voice of PACASA

In Memory of Mr Victor Mokokotlela. Wits University will be hosting a Memorial Service tomorrow (1 June 2022), at Wits University , Adler Museum at 1000am.

You also welcome to join online via the link below.
https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_ODk3MzMwYzEtNGVjNS00ZWM4LThlZjgtNDZiMWNmODYzY2Q1%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%224b1b908c-5582-4377-ba07-a36d65e34934%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%22e0068a4f-295a-4d37-8370-c668f0553ca9%22%7d

Join conversation

It is with great sadness that the Mokokotlela family announces the sudden passing of PACASA's founding Deputy President Mr Victor Mokokotlela 🕊️🕯️

Prepare Your Practice to Offer COVID-19 Vaccination

The Clinical Care Platform in partnership with the National Department Health invites health practitioners to join the National COVID-19 Vaccine Implementation Training which will introduce both the private and public health sector to key processes on the implementation of vaccination programme services.

Event: COVID-19 Vaccine Programme Implementation Training

Date: 09 & 10 May 2022 (2 consecutive days for 2 hours each.)
Time: 18:00 – 20:00

Cost: Free

CPD: 4 Clinical Points

Registration Link: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_xzcOCHXTTdGsj74nG-Upig

Please note: The training will be facilitated over 2 days for 2 hours each in the evening, you need to attend both sessions to complete the training.

For enquiries:
Email: [email protected]
Call/WhatsApp: 064 543 3928
Website: www.clinicalcareplatform.com