Lawyers are demanding written explanations as to why would-be surgeons at four medical schools failed their final written exams.

Every surgery registrar at UCT, Wits, Free State and the University of Pretoria failed. Yet most of the students at the universities of KZN, Stellenbosch and Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences passed, notes a Times Select report.

Nine of the specialists-in-training have a lawyer’s letter demanding to see their marked scripts, and they want the reasons they failed, in writing.

The group – eight from UCT and one from Stellenbosch – are qualified doctors who have spent about five years studying and working as trainee specialists at Groote Schuur and Tygerberg hospitals.

The entire Wits class has also written a letter to the exam authority, the Colleges of Medicine of SA, asking about the marking process and how the statistics compare with previous years.

Professor Martin Smith, head of general surgery at Wits, said: ‘I don’t believe the 100% failure rate reflects the training and knowledge of the Wits candidates.’

In the lawyer’s letter sent to the Colleges of Medicine, the UCT students claim only 15 of 46 surgery registrars passed. Other numbers provided suggest only nine passed, an unusually low percentage.

Registrars need to pass two written exams to qualify for a final oral exam, during which they examine patients.

The letter threatens a court review of the entire examination and warns doctors may request to see every written paper, without the candidates’ names.

They have also demanded written reasons that they failed.

One of the doctors said they feared discrimination because seven of them are foreigners.

‘There are a fair proportion of foreign candidates from Libya, Nigeria and Kenya who failed,’ he said, and they were all supervised by qualified specialists at Groote Schuur.

Full Times Select report (subscription needed)