Zuko Komisa
- The court unanimously ruled that forcing doctors to work in specific areas illegally restricts their constitutional right to choose their own career and practice location freely.
- The legal battle was led by the trade union Solidarity and six other medical groups representing private hospitals and independent doctors.
- This decision is a major setback for the state’s upcoming National Health Insurance (NHI) scheme, as it dismantles a key mechanism the government wanted to use for centralized control.
The Constitutional Court has officially blocked the government’s plan to dictate where doctors can work.
The apex court upheld a previous High Court ruling, declaring that the “certificate of need” section of the National Health Act is unconstitutional and completely invalid.
The disputed laws (Sections 36 to 40 of the Act) were designed to give the health minister the power to decide where medical professionals could practice and where new clinics or equipment could be placed.
The court found this approach unconstitutional, firmly protecting the independence of healthcare workers.
Solidarity described the judgment as a massive victory against state control.
The union argued that the government was trying to use doctors as “pawns” to cover up its own failures in the public healthcare sector.
As a result of the ruling, the Constitutional Court has ordered the health minister and the health director-general to pay the legal costs of all the medical associations involved in the case.
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