"Bringing health workers into public service on the African continent"
We are a social profit organisation with a dedicated team of people working with a network of
government bodies, private sector institutions and civil society organisations.
Donors and partners
The AHP model
PUBLIC SECTOR HEALTH WORKER STAFFING FOR SOUTH AFRICA
Our aim is to fill present staffing gaps in the healthcare system, while working towards a more sustainably staffed future. Ultimately we want people to view the public sector in a new light, as a truly viable and exciting career option. We can place over 20 qualified doctors at the cost of training just a single doctor. We are also using our monitoring and evaluation capabilities to identify the factors that are driving the brain drain, to inform effective strategy setting and advocacy for improved future staff retention.
AHP has successfully developed a recruitment and retention model for healthcare facilities based on years of expertise in rural and public health, recruitment, business management and operations. This cycle is the way in which AHP strives to aid healthcare facilities to become self-sustaining – all of which directly translates into improved healthcare delivery and access to healthcare in rural areas.
Management
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Foreign-doctor contingent
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Local health care workers
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Community Service and junior doctors
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Self-sustainability
- Ensure effective management (CEO, HR and Medical Manager) is in place at a particular facility. Without effective bureaucratic and human resource management, recruitment and retention for any facility will, ultimately, prove to be a failure. When AHP works with a knowledgeable and competent hospital manager the results are impressive.
- Recruit a contingent of foreign-qualified skills for the facility. Foreign skills from developed nations are willing to work in under-resourced rural settings on one to three year contracts. Such teams can form the core of longer-term sustainable clinical teams.
- Recruit local health workers for the facility. In rural areas, professional and personal isolation, as well as burn-out, are major factors inhibiting the development of clinical teams. Local health workers can be attracted and retained if there is a contingent of foreign-qualified health workers to work with them.
- Attract junior doctors and trainees for the facility. With a team to support, supervise and manage, junior doctors and registrars can be effectively recruited, trained and retained.
- Bring facility to self-sustainability. Once a facility has a large enough team, management can focus on using its improved capacity and more attractive work offering to maintain its clinical team. This can be done through alumni networks of foreign and local health workers, advertising vacancies on partner websites and improving skills in best practice recruitment methodology.
