Conservative estimates by Wilma Meeus and David Sanders at the University of the Western Cape’s School of Public Health show that the United States has saved at least U$3,86-million(R30,9 million) in training fees by employing doctors from Nigeria, which has lost 21 000 doctors to the superpower.
Human Resources
SERIOUS BRAIN DRAIN HITS MALAWI'S AILING HEALTH SECTOR
While Malawi's health sector is already hurt by shortages of drugs due to a constrained government budget, and a rising death toll because of HIV/AIDS, an exodus of medical personnel to richer western nations is threatening to cripple the already ailing sector.
SHIFTING THE BURDEN: THE PRIVATE SECTOR REsponse to HIV/AIDS
As the economic burden of HIV/AIDS increases in sub-Saharan Africa, allocation of the burden among levels and sectors of society is changing. The private sector has more scope to avoid the economic burden of AIDS than governments, households, or nongovernmental organisations, and the burden is being systematically shifted away from the private sector. Common practices that transfer the burden to households and government include: Pre-employment screening; Reductions in employee benefits; Restructured employment contracts; Outsourcing of low skilled jobs; Selective retrenchments; and Changes in production technologies. This paper was produced by the Department of International Health at Boston School of Public Health.
THE RESPONSE OF AFRICAN BUSINESSES TO HIV/AIDS
This paper from the Department of International Health at Boston School of Public Health is to summarizes what is known about the internal costs of HIV/AIDS, such as increasing absenteeism, higher pension payouts, and breakdowns in worker discipline and morale, to companies in Commonwealth countries in sub-Saharan Africa. The authors identify a dozen different types of workforce costs that HIV/AIDS will impose on African companies in the coming years. After briefly reviewing existing estimates of the costs of HIV/AIDS to business, they present a model for assessing these costs and describe some of the strategies companies are adopting to reduce the costs.
Health review details human resource development
The Health Systems Trust has released the eighth edition of the South African Health Review. The review focuses on progress made in restructuring the South African health system and provides an annual and longer-term review of the implementation of South African health policies. Twenty one chapters are grouped into the following four themes: framework for transformation, human resources, priority programmes and support systems. The Review acts as a barometer for assessing the transformation processes and their impact on provision of equitable health care to all South Africans, and provides the most recent data on health status and health services, key opinions, and current thinking in Health in SA. Chapters 7 to 10, discuss issues pertinent to human resources development, including implementation of Community Service for Health Professionals, the deployment of community based health workers in dealing with essential health and social issues, and the experiences of primary health care facility workers.
Further details: /newsletter/id/29665
HIV/AIDS workforce attack could lead to major economic decline
Not only is the HIV/AIDS pandemic a "humanitarian disaster," but the disease could also cause an "economic crisis" in "emerging markets" such as South Africa, China and the former Soviet Union, where the virus is "spreading fast," the Toronto Globe and Mail reports. Labor-intensive industries, such as mining, have been particularly hard hit by HIV/AIDS, and service industries such as banking and food products may have to project slower growth in coming years due to a declining consumer base.
Hospitals offer incentives in a bid to keep their staff
Private hospitals are pulling out all the stops to keep nurses from taking up lucrative offers overseas. Salary incentives and training programmes are just some of the carrots being dangled before staff to keep them loyal. Nursing Update, the journal of the Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (Denosa), is overflowing with adverts for nursing positions in the UK (where the training background is similar), Canada, the US, Australia and New Zealand. Saudi Arabia also pays big money.
Managing HIV/AIDS in the workplace
This publication is designed to guide government departments in South Africa on the minimum requirements to effectively manage HIV/AIDS in the workplace and ensure a coordinated public service response. It is expected to assist departments in planning, developing, implementing, monitoring and evaluating workplace HIV/AIDS policies and programs.
nurses leave south africa for overseas
In a recent article in the South African Medical Journal, Nicki Fouché of the Division of Nursing and Midwifery at the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Cape Town warned that the haemorrhaging of professional nursing staff would have a catastrophic effect on the delivery of health care in South Africa over the next decade. She added that it was estimated that there are 2 300 registered nurses working overseas and that they receive about 200 applications per month for overseas registration. In 1999, 3 300 nurses left South Africa.
AIDS, GROWTH AND DISTRIBUTION IN SOUTH AFRICA
How is the AIDS pandemic affecting growth and distribution in South Africa, and what are the economic impacts for workers likely to be? While the overall picture is murky, certain worrying trends and findings present themselves: If firms react by continuing to decrease their reliance on unskilled labour and by moving out of economic sectors whose customer-base comprises lower income consumers, then poor households will find themselves doubly disadvantaged, as their access to the labour market becomes ever more tenuous and the products that they purchase may become scarcer and more costly.