Report: A disposable workforce – Foreign health professionals in South Africa

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This 102-page report is the product of two years of research between 2013 and 2014. Researchers from the University of the Witswatersrand drew on Department of Health pay roll data and interviews to find several major challenges regarding the recruitment of foreign health care workers, including:

Long turnaround times in the process of applications by the Department of Health and provinces;
Problematic interdependencies in the job and immigration applications between the departments of health and home affairs that complicated and prolong applications;
The outsourcing of credential verification to a US company instead of building these skills locally; and
The alleged use of the asylum-seeking process as a “backdoor to recruitment for developing country nationals”

Download the full report and accompanying policy brief:

A disposable workforce: Foreign health professionals in the South African public service

Policy brief: A disposable workforce