UK to curb poaching of SA doctors
27 August 2004
British Health Secretary John Hutton has announced new measures to curb the poaching of South Africa's doctors and nurses.
According to Business Day, South Africa's public hospitals and clinics are struggling with an estimated 31% vacancy rate as the country's health professionals leave for better-paid jobs overseas or in the local private sector.
According to the Health Systems Trust, up to 6% of health-care workers in the UK are drawn from SA.
Hutton, part of a delegation visiting SA for the annual SA-UK bilateral forum, told journalists in Cape Town on Wednesday that Britain's National Health System (NHS) was expanding, but that this should not be at the expense of developing nations.
Hutton said that he and his SA counterpart, Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, had agreed to tighten the screws on the recruitment of South Africa's health professionals.
"The minister and I looked at how we can strengthen the
International Code of Practice on Ethical Recruitment of Health Workers", Hutton said. The code was adopted by Commonwealth countries at the World Health Assembly in Geneva last year.
Hutton said the UK would now close loopholes in the code that allowed health-care providers to bring in staff from developing countries, including "back-door" recruitment into the NHS via the private sector.
The code would be extended to the recruitment of all health workers, and not only to those employed on a full-time basis, Hutton said.
Britain would also not do business with recruitment agencies that did not adhere to the code, he said, especially agencies recruting for the private healthcare sector. He added that the NHS had already stopped using agencies that actively targeted South Africa.
The two ministers also discussed a possible repatriation strategy aimed at getting South Africans in the UK to be part of a programme to place health professionals in SA.
Last
year, South Africa and Britain signed a memorandum of understanding to give effect to the code. The memorandum encourages the creation of education and practice opportunities for local health workers for specific periods within Britain's NHS.
Countering the "perception that nurses in this country are leaving in droves", Tshabalala-Msimang said that between January and July 2003, 1 600 nurses had applied to the Nursing Council to have their qualifications verified for work overseas. In the same period this year, 1 100 nurses had applied, a decrease of 500.
The minister also cited a recent World Health Organisation study of six countries, including South Africa, which showed that a large number of health professionals migrated because they wanted international exposure and experience.
Addressing Parliament on the subject last year, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said the government had no wish to restrict the freedom of health workers who wanted to work abroad. Rather, her
department's concern was with the "exploitative recruiting tactics" of certain international operators.
She said government believed that the international movement of health workers could, to some extent, be managed to the mutual benefit of countries and individuals abroad.
"By providing this opportunity, South Africans can get this exposure and return to the country with newly acquired skills and experience", she said.
SouthAfrica.info reporter
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