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Africa Calling

The work opportunity

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A satisfying day at the office - rural doctors, Eastern Cape, South Africa.

A satisfying day at the office

Despite its challenges, many people find working in rural and public health to be highly rewarding, for three major reasons:

  1. The opportunity to make a difference and be truly appreciated for what you do, by patients who are delighted and grateful to see you.
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  2. The medical experience – immediately getting to work, hands on, with interesting conditions, from trauma to HIV, and gaining massive amounts of experience every day. Forget about Mrs Jones' ingrown toenail!
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  3. The setting and the lifestyle – many of our rural hospitals our situated in truly beautiful environments – setting the tone for a safer, less stressful and more balanced way of life. Over and above this, in settings where the staff complement has started to grow, the social life tends to be very active indeed – with activities, sporting events, beach parties and more.
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Add to this the inroads we are now making to ensure excellent training and career development for rural doctors, and this way of life becomes very tempting indeed.

To date, because of our exodus of local professionals, AHP has focused on recruiting foreigners wishing to spend a few years in service, whilst experiencing the beauty the southern African region has to offer. Since 2005, we have placed over 1500 in this way.

Our next step is to get the local professionals back on board. To do this, we need to ensure viable long term careers, training, support and help for those needing to get the family settled in. This process is rapidly starting to unfold, so watch this space to keep up to speed with the impending rural health renaissance!