Labor

REQUEST FOR EXPRESSION OF INTEREST FROM GENERAL PRACTITIONERS TO PROVIDE CLINICAL SERVICES IN PUBLIC PRIMARY HEALTH CARE CLINICS WITHIN THE 10 NHI PILOT DISTRICTS

The National Department of Health has embarked on an initiative to improve and expand access to healthcare services through the contracting of private General Medical Practitioners (GPs) to render sessional service in Primary Healthcare facilities. This initiative is in support of the National Health Insurance (NHl) pilot that aims to improve access to high quality public sector health care services. The initial phase of GP contracting for sessional services will take place in the 10 NHI pilot Districts, which are:

Background

The World Health Organization (WHO) in partnership with UNFPA, UNAIDS, and the Global Network of Sex Work Projects, have developed new guidelines to better protect sex workers from HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs).

 Sex workers in many places are highly vulnerable to HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) due to multiple factors, including large numbers of sex partners, unsafe working conditions and barriers to the negotiation of consistent condom use. Moreover, sex workers often have little control over these factors because of social marginalization and criminalized work environments. Alcohol, drug use and violence in some settings may further exacerbate their vulnerability and risk.

The World Health Organization’s recommendations on optimizing the roles of health workers aim to help address critical health workforce shortages that slow down progress towards the health-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). A more rational distribution of tasks and responsibilities among cadres of health workers can significantly improve both access and cost-effectiveness – for example by training and enabling ‘mid-level’ and ‘lay’ health workers to perform specific interventions otherwise provided only by cadres with longer (and sometimes more specialized) training.

The Rural Health Advocacy Project is a partnership initiative between the Rural Doctors Association of Southern Africa (RuDASA), the Wits Centre for Rural Health (WCRH) and Section27. The work of the RHAP revolves around the constitutional right of rural and remote communities to have equitable access to comprehensive, quality health care.

The RHAP has established a new programme that aims to improve access to quality health care services in rural South Africa through more equitable and effective planning and financing of rural health services.

Main purpose of the job

To lead, coordinate and implement the RPB Programme objectives

Location

Braamfontein, Johannesburg

Health systems strengthening has become a top priority of many global and national health agendas as a way to improve health outcomes. With the global health context becoming increasingly complex, national health systems are beginning to move away from a focus on disease-specific health responses to comprehensive strengthening of health systems. The global community agrees that without a systems approach, population health outcomes will not further improve and health related development goals such as the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for 2015 will not be met.

There is widespread consensus that providing universal, sustainable, affordable and quality health services underpins efforts to achieve equitable health outcomes. UNICEF in 2010-2011 conducted a two-phase landscape analysis, funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, to investigate how health insurance and other social health protection mechanisms contribute to achieving universal health coverage (UHC). The work built on previous research examining the protection from impoverishment that health insurance provides to vulnerable groups, the potential for increasing and expanding insurance coverage, and the options for and constraints limiting the use of insurance to attain UHC. 

The field of global health is witnessing a shift in focus from disease-driven initiatives to projects aimed at increasing the sustainability and strengthening of health systems. A crucial component to this is universal health coverage (UHC), which seeks to address financing schemes for health, separate from efforts to provide both adequate numbers of health workers and structures for health-care delivery. UHC may be provided by government or through a combination of private insurance schemes, public-sector planning, and employer-based programs. Countries across the world, from China and India to Rwanda and Mexico, are beginning to implement different universal health coverage schemes, marking a rise in interest and political will for universal health coverage.

This issue of the HST Update examines the information plays a pivotal role in the health care industry and questions if the needs of the health care workers are being met.