The Colleges of Medicine of South Africa (CMSA) was founded and financed in 1954 by members of the medical profession and was registered as a non-profit making company in 1955. The CMSA is dedicated “To promote the highest degree of skill and efficiency in medical and dental practice and to cultivate the highest ethical standards and professional conduct … not for pecuniary profit, but for the betterment of humanity”. To this end we continuously strive to improve on our support of, and increase our investment in, the structure and function of health care services and our medical professionals.
With the key function of acting as national examining body for medical professions in South Africa, the CMSA is unique in the world in that it embraces 28 constituent Colleges, representing all the disciplines of medicine and dentistry. Because the CMSA has the unique structure of containing all medical and dental specialities within a single framework, it has the potential to foster aspects of medical education and medical professionalism which are common to all disciplines.
The President of The College of Psychiatry, Prof Soraya Seedat, has written the following article for News24 regarding mental illness awareness for world mental health day.