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Message from HPCSA President

Dear Practitioners

A lot has happened since the begining of the year and I am pleased to apprise members on some of the current developments at Council.

In 2016, Council prepared and presented to the Minister of Health, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, the first ever 5 – year Strategic Plan. The process for developing the Strategic Plan was informed by a careful analysis of all the factors that might have an impact on Council’s ability to perform its duties and deliver on its mandate.

The Strategic Plan highlights four key strategic goals, namely:

  • Improved business model to enhance the functioning of the HPCSA
  • Adequate, effective and efficient support by and to Council, Professional Boards and Secretariat
  • HPCSA as an advocate, advisor to enhance engagements with all key stakeholders
  • Legislative and regulatory consistency across the
  • HPCSA and its Professional Boards

In implementing the first strategic goal, a service provider, FeverTree Consultants (FTC) was appointed to assist Council in its endeavours to better service key stakeholders – the practitioners. FTC have been on board since January 2017 and will be operating from Council’s Head Offices for the next 18 months.

The Secretariat, together with consultants from FTC, are working tirelessly to help build a new organisation that will be recognised for its innovation, professionalism and excellence in service delivery. As Council and members of the Professional Boards, our task is to continuously provide strategic direction and support; an area that we have focused on during the past year. Our collective commitment to excellence in leadership and innovation must remain our focus in the coming year. Different Workstreams have been established comprising of specialists from different fields within Council.

The following workstreams, comprising specialists from the relevant areas of expertise within Council, have been established:

  1. Vision and Design – This workstream will evaluate the“as-is” situation at HPCSA and develop a 1, 3 and 5-year vision and design for the “to-be” situation, taking into account the services required by the present and future customers of HPCSA, with the view of improving service delivery in line with the Health Professions Act (56 of 1974)
  2. Governance – This workstream aims to improve control and decision making in Council and Professional Boards; focusing on the governance executive level – Governance Diagnostic & Baselining; Development of Refined Governance Structure; Implementation and monitoring of new Governance model
  3. Business Process Re-engineering – will review and assess HPCSA’s current business processes and use that as a baseline, to develop the “To-Be” business processes.
  4. Organisational Structure Detailed Design Workstream will focus on developing a best-fit structure for the Dr. TKS Letlape HPCSA aligned to the “To-Be” vision, to optimise service delivery and to deliver an effective and efficient, best fit organisational structure to execute the HPCSA’s mandate, with a priority focus on improving service delivery.
  5. KPI and Dashboard Development – will design and develop Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) as well as Performance Dashboards for HPCSA to monitor Councilwide performance and KPI’s that will incorporate strategic, tactical and operational performance elements to measure and evaluate how well the organisation is performing in meeting its’ performance priorities
  6. The IT/IM Architecture Review Workstream will assess the HPCSA’s current ICT landscape and architecture against the backdrop of the direction set by the outputs of the Vision and Design, Business Process Re-engineering and Organisation design Workstreams.
  7. Communication, Stakeholder Engagement and Change Management – will communicate, raise awareness and prepare stakeholders both internally and externally for the need for change and keep them informed on and involved in the transformation of Council.
  8. Employee Relations Workstream – will focus on ensuring employees buy in to the Turnaround Project and ensure that all employee relations matters relating to the programme are effectively managed.

The Communication, Stakeholder Engagement and Change Management Workstream will regularly update you and other important stakeholders on progress around the implementation of various aspects of the Turnaround Strategy. Some of the projects that emanated from Council’s Turnaround Strategy include the Online Renewal and Fee Payment System; the Collaboration Platform and Office 365. The Online Renewal and Fee Payment System will enable Practitioners to:

  • Renew their licences online;
  • Pay annual fees and make other outstanding payments onlin;
  • Allow Practitioners to download an electronic practitioner card including an encrypted QR code which, when scanned at any time, will reveal much more information about the practitioner than is currently the case, with real-time validation;
  • Practitioners who prefer the printed format will be able to print their HPCSA registration details from the portal;
  • Practitioners will be able to view, verify and confirm, or update their contact details, as they renew their membership, or at any time through this portal;
  • The portal allows the practitioner to view their qualification(s) and registration details at any time, and where required, send a service request for queries.

The testing of the online renewal portal has started in earnest and training for front line staff commences on Wednesday 22 February 2017. The Online Renewal Portal will go live on 1 March 2017. Council has delayed the gazetting of the Annual Fees so that more practitioners may use our Online Portal.

Council is communicating with all employers on the format of the new practising cards. Letters with a sample of the new practising cards have been sent to the Heads of Departments in the nine provinces, showing them what the new practising card will look like. This kind of communication is necessary to ensure a seamless and smooth experience by both practitioners and employers as they present and receive the new cards respectively.

In implementing the second strategic goal of Council of Adequate, effective and efficient support by and to Council, Professional Boards and Secretariat, the other initiative is the Collaboration Platform which is known as “Paige”, and will focus on the governance structures of Council. The main objective of the Collaboration Platform is to enable Council, Board members and Secretariat to actively collaborate through an online platform which will enable but not be limited to:

  • Online sharing of board members
  • Presence determination

The HPCSA will achieve the following business objectives by deploying the collaboration platform:

  • Enable fast and reliable communication channels between Council, Professional Boards, Committees and Secretariat;
  • Build a future ready foundation for unified communications;
  • Enable Council, Professional Boards, Committees and Secretariat to have access to the collaboration platform anytime, anywhere, anyhow (online or offline);
  • Council, Professional board and Committee members to easily collaborate and communicate outside and inside the organization;
  • Enable Council, Professional board and Committee members to have online meetings whenever required; and
  • Ensure HPCSA data is secure at all times.

I therefore invite each one of you to become part of this exciting new chapter for our organisation. As Council and Professional Board Members, we believe that the success for Council lies in its ability to deliver on its mandate efficiently and effectively. As Councillors and Professional Board members, we will do our part in making every effort to support the Secretariat to create an environment in which Council can achieve the highest levels of excellence. Council has a great responsibility to society and we are confident that together we can deliver on the vision of protecting the public and guiding the professions. We will constantly keep you abreast of all developments.

In conclusion, I thank you all for taking time to read this update.

Sincerely

Dr. TKS Letlape

HPCSA President

 

Last Updated on 17 March 2017 by HPCSA Corporate Affairs

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