As part of the Department’s mandate, DHP continues to develop and/or amend policies to address concerns that pose threats or risks to patients’ safety. One of the issues that the department considered to affect the delivery of quality care is the break in practice of healthcare practitioners. There is evidence that the absence of clinical practice in one’s profession has a huge impact on the person’s skills, performance, and competence that may affect licensing / maintenance of license processes.

The break in practice policy aims to:

• Provide terms and conditions that will serve as a guide for healthcare practitioners with the non-continuous practice for a period of time.

• Define the length of non-continuous practice which will constitute a break in practice.

• Define the period of supervised practice that will be required for those practitioners with a break in practice.

• Uphold the department’s responsibility to ensure that the public receives healthcare services from qualified/competent practitioners at all times.