Authored by Deniro Pillay
In June 2026, the Supreme Court of Appeal confirmed the termination of a doctor’s admission privileges granted at a private healthcare facility following his suspension from practice by the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA).
The doctor, a specialist gynaecologist and obstetrician, was granted admission privileges by the owner of the facility in terms of an informal agreement from October 2019. The doctor exercised the privileges until he was found guilty of unprofessional conduct and suspended from practice by the HPCSA in June 2023.
The doctor was permitted by the HPCSA to resume practice from 3 June 2024 subject to certain conditions, including that he be supervised for a period of time. He requested the owner to reinstate his admission privileges at the facility.
The owner decided not to grant the doctor the admission privileges. The decision was informed by the following: there was no medical or financial need for another gynaecologist/obstetrician at the facility; several other hospitals in close proximity could serve the area and its patients; there were allegations of unprofessional conduct against the doctor that were widely reported in the media; the doctor had been sanctioned by the HPCSA; permitting him to practise at the facility would cause the facility severe reputational harm; the owner’s professional indemnity insurance premiums were likely to increase by having a ‘doctor of risk’ practice at the facility.
The doctor argued that the agreement granting his admission privileges was never lawfully terminated and that he retained a contractual right to exercise those privileges after his suspension from practice by the HPCSA. Therefore, he was entitled to the immediate reinstatement of his privileges once his suspension was uplifted by the HPCSA.
The owner’s defence was that the agreement contained a term implied by law that the doctor’s admission privileges would terminate if he was no longer able to practise his profession. Accordingly, when he was suspended from practice by the HPCSA and his registration was deemed cancelled, the granted privileges terminated.
The Court agreed with the owner that the doctor’s admission privileges terminated on his suspension. Having regard to the purpose for which the privileges are granted in the professional relationship between the doctor and the owner, those privileges terminated automatically when he was no longer permitted by the HPCSA to practise as a medical practitioner. He was required to apply for admission privileges which had to be considered and approved by the owner afresh.
The Court confirmed that the granting of admission privileges to a doctor is a matter of private law. The termination of admission privileges does not constitute administrative action as contemplated in the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act 3 of 2000.
Ramdhin v Rondebosch Medical Centre (Pty) Ltd (084/2025) [2026] ZASCA 93 (29 June 2026)