Some time has passed and there has been no news. I am told by HWSETA that I will be included in future correspondence about this with HPCSA, HWSETA, and QCTO despite articles I have posted that were not all that well received. I am grateful for that. So if there was news I would probably know about it. Since there isn’t, is no news good news?
NO NEWS, NO FUTURE MEETINGS SET
One could ask if I am being unnecessarily contentious on this.
This is what I am trying to prevent: A name change to the three QCTO skills programs for first aid being made by HWSETA and QCTO, at the behest of NDOH and HPCSA, in a way that means all SDP’s who are accredited for it must re-apply for it as if it were a new program; thereby passing the administrative cost and burden of the change to the SDP, unnecessarily, and without proper consultation with the SDP’s who are the stakeholders who would be most affected by it.
I cannot make myself see that happening as a thing that is reasonable, necessary, or something that should even be a priority because:
- There is evidence that this would not stack up legally (you cannot ring-fence for yourself English words that are objectively descriptive of the thing they are describing).
- The proposed changes do not seem to me to have any correlation to patient safety and do not change course content and training methods.
- The words that are “banned” are used by other parties operating in South Africa in the same way, and they are happy to flout the ban (or agree with me on point 1).
- Ironically I can offhand and immediately see at least one instance of the HPCSA using a word in one of their program titles that is banned by the NDOH. If I spent any time on it I would surely find more examples because the banned word list is so long.
- The three SETA unit standards for first aid are again active (last date for enrolment extended to 2026), and are all three using words on the HPCSA and NDOH ‘banned’ list. Will they try change the titles of the unit standards too and have them re-issued with new US numbers? And then have everyone re-apply for those?
- The administrative cost would be passed to the SDP who is already under pressure, and the QCTO is already much too far behind on establishing new programs to even think of prioritising a frivolous request like this; whether they know it or not.
- The reasons for the title changes proposed by HPCSA and NDOH seem spurious to me and trying to come up with new titles for these programs – while avoiding the long list of words that accurately describe the programs but are banned – ends up looking like satire.
I will continue to ask the parties involved to abandon this title change idea if it raises its head again. Maybe they already have, things have been nice and quiet on that front. There is no news and no future meetings have been set yet.
Long may it stay that way.
