REGISTRATION & RESTORATION
REGISTRATION CRITERIA

Qualifying in any of the health care professions is a big personal responsibility and, as a practitioner, there are several legal obligations.
Registration with the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) is a pre-requisite for professional practice, and it is also a legal requirement to keep all personal details up to date once in practice.

An annual fee is payable for this registration and failure to pay this fee could result in erasure from the register. If, for some reason a practitioner is erased from the register, they can redeem themselves by applying for restoration and paying a penalty fee.

Voluntary erasure from the register is possible if the practitioner does not intend to practice his/her profession in South Africa for a given period of time.

There are six main registration categories (not all categories apply to all professions), namely:

Student Registration
Intern Registration
Public Service (Including persons performing Community Service)
Supervised practice
Education (i.e. for lecturers)
Independent Practice (including Registrar's who are training in a specific speciality)

After completing the requirements of each of the registration categories, the onus is on the individual to formally apply for registration in the next category. Penalty fees are charged upon application for a new registration category if the individual has not previously been registered in the required category for the relevant time period.

The registration guidelines vary from one Professional Board to the next. There is a detailed reference guide for the registration requirements for each of the 12 Professional Boards, simply click on the Professional Boards below for the full details.