When the 2022 List was published, it replaced the previous long-standing critical skills list that was published on 3 June 2014 (2014 List) in its entirety. What was noteworthy from the replacement of the 2014 List, was that all critical skills within the healthcare sector were excluded from the 2022 List. The Revised List, however, seeks to rectify this by including 31 additional skills which relate specifically to specialist medical practitioners. These specialist medical practitioners have been identified as being capable of diagnosing, treating, and preventing illness, disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments in humans through the use of, inter alia, specialised testing, surgical, physical and psychiatric techniques.
Below is a list of some of the newly listed critical skills contained in the Revised List:
- Dentistry – specialists in maxillo and oral pathology, maxillo and oral surgery, prosthodontics and oral medicine and periodontics.
- Medical practitioners – specialists in cardiothoracic surgery, clinical pharmacology, public health, dermatology, emergency medicine and neurology.
- Industrial pharmacists.
The inclusion of the specialist medical practitioners in the Revised List is no doubt due to the skills shortages that are currently being faced in the healthcare industry due to, inter alia, a large number of medical professionals emigrating to other countries and a lack of training in these fields of speciality. This is definitely a step in the right direction.
