The doctors who examined convicted fraudster Schabir Shaik have been cleared of any unethical conduct, the Health Professionals Council of South Africa (HPCSA) said on Monday.
Addressing the media in Pretoria, registrar Boyce Mkhize said: ”We therefore find nothing untoward or unethical or unprofessional in the conduct of all the practitioners involved in providing medical care to Mr Shaik and the reports they compiled on his condition.”
Shaik was released on early parole in March after the parole board ruled that his medical condition was gravely serious.
Mkhize said a committee of preliminary inquiry — consisting of independent experts — satisfied itself that the medical reports by various doctors were ”not exaggerated, misrepresented or falsified”.
The HPCSA established that Shaik’s condition was also confirmed by an independent specialist outside KwaZulu-Natal, based at the University of Cape Town. Mkhize would not disclose the specialist’s name.
The council was called in to investigate three of Shaik’s doctors who reported to the parole board after the Democratic Alliance (DA) lodged a complaint against them.
In the complaint the DA suggested that Shaik might not have been eligible for medical parole and that his release might have been influenced by political considerations given his assumed relationship with African National Congress leader and presidential frontrunner Jacob Zuma.
”None of the reports … were as a result of a political consideration or relationship or status of Mr Shaik to the president of the ANC Mr Jacob Zuma.
”To the contrary, the reports were a true reflections of pure clinical observations and records which were not susceptible to manipulation or misstatement,” said Mkhize.
He said the DA’s complaint did not meet the requirements for the purpose of an investigation as it was too broad and too general to warrant it.
”Complaints lodged … should as a matter of course disclose the alleged misdemeanour based on professional engagement between a doctor and a patient.
”The complaint lodged by the DA … created an impression that this was more a political matter than a matter of professional ethics.”
Ordinarily, based on the above, the complaint would have been dismissed, however, Mkhize said because of the ”huge public debacle” the council chose to continue.
He said Shaik’s medical condition was known to the council, however, it was bound to confidentiality.
Mkhize did, however, say that the medical and clinical reports were consistent.
”The clinical reports as well as the medical reports reveal a gravely serious medical condition of Mr Shaik … the medical reports by various doctors were not exaggerated, misrepresented or falsified,” he said.
Shaik received a 15-year prison term when he was convicted of fraud and corruption in 2005. He only served two-and-a-half years in Durban’s Westville prison, with most of that time in hospital. — Sapa