About AHP
AHP Milestones
2005
- The Department of Home Affairs set up a waiver for foreign-qualified doctors to apply through the Foreign Workforce Management Programme (FWMP).
- In February 2005 – R300 000 in funding from Discovery was secured and in April, Prof Steve Reid approached Tracey Hudson to start working on the project, recruiting foreign doctors in KwaZulu-Natal.
- In May 2005, guided by Jannie Hugo, the Rural Doctors’ Association of South Africa (RuDASA) launched the Rural Health Initiative (RHI) Recruitment Project under the auspices of the South African Academy of Family Practice (SAAFP).
- In this first year of recruitment 10 doctors were placed.
2006
- The Foundation for Professional Development (FPD) founded The Placement Project (TPP), a not-for-profit recruitment agency, in January 2006. This venture, run by Gustav Wolfaardt and Veena Pillay and funded by the Atlantic Philanthropies, was based on a feasibility study done by FPD.
- Saul Kornik joined RHI as the CEO.
- RHI and TPP entered into a collaborative relationship for the recruitment of healthcare professionals for the South African public sector.
- AHP’s UK office was opened by Liz and Martin Schroder who helped AHP with visa applications from their home. Greg Lydall also started in the UK as a volunteer.
- AHP attended its first BMJ careers fair, and has attended every year since.
- RHI and TPP had four staff members each by the end of 2006.
- During 2006 a total of 131 placements were made.
2007
- In just two years the impact of TPP and RHI was phenomenal.
- TPP was focused on the recruitment of local doctors, while RHI’s focus was on foreign-qualified doctors.
- During 2007, TPP and RHI’s recruitment project signed a joint venture agreement merging the two projects into a single public sector healthcare solution for South Africa.
- The merged project moved into new offices in Johannesburg, set up an independent advisory board (Ntondeni Ndwamato, Gustaav Wolfaardt, Jannie Hugo and Clarence Mini) and began setting the infrastructure for the growth of this concept.
- The joint venture was signed for Africa Health Placements (AHP) in July. This process was facilitated through Atlantic funding and RuDASA.
- The joint venture soon started recruiting for the Limpopo province.
- AHP was given funding by PEPFAR, Discovery, CIDA as well as Anglo American and De Beers, through Tshikululu.
- By the end of 2007 the team had grown to 10 staff members.
- A total of 237 placements were made.
2008
- The joint venture was rebranded into AHP as it is known today.
- During 2008 consolidation and strategy were the main orders of business. The first team retreat took place, and a mission, vision and organisational culture was formulated.
- AHP grew to 16 staff members and the first two managers were hired.
- AHP’s core recruitment team all joined in 2008: Karabo, Esther and Rosanna, as well as Xoliswa the recruitment manager of the Johannesburg office.
- Therese Hansen started as AHP’s USA liaison, situated in Washington DC.
- AHP made 410 placements into underserved facilities in South Africa – this translates to over five times more doctors placed through AHP than through all eight South African medical schools combined.
2009
- 2009 is the year AHP crossed the 1 000th placement mark, a massive press event was held to commemorate this.
- Expansion plans into Swaziland and Lesotho were formulated.
- An extensive orientation programme was designed and implementation began.
- Community service officer research was conducted (report out soon).
- AHP was asked to sit on the steering committee for the Rural Health Advocacy Project (RHAP)
- AHP visited conferences in five states in the USA.
- A tender was won for the placement of locum pharmacists into public hospitals.
- The London GP Deanery got involved with AHP, sending junior doctors to South Africa as part of an out-of-programme year.
- AHP also started consulting to Discovery Health, the Department of Health (DoH) and the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA).
- AHP was now 24 staff members strong.
- In 2009 alone, 567 permanent and volunteer placements were made:
- 237 foreign-qualified doctors (GPs and specialists) in rural government hospitals, in government-funded posts which were previously vacant.
- 330 local-qualified health workers of all cadres who have been placed mostly in HIV/Aids clinics.
- By the end of 2009 – a massive 1 258 placements were made since inception.
2010
- AHP branched out into Swaziland and Lesotho where a significant impact was made in terms of placements and improving systems.
- The Swaziland Minister of Health has already made special mention of the work done there!
- New website was launched in May and a renewed presence on social media – Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, Motribe and Wikipedia.
- AHP launched the Eastern Cape Rural Doctor Support Programme (ECRDSP) with great success in three districts.
- AHP has started working with PEPFAR-funded clinics to get there staff moved onto government payroll in advance of the end of PEPFAR funding so to ensure continuity of services for people living with HIV/Aids.
- The full implementation of AHP orientation and ongoing support programmes proved to be a success.
- Saul was the key-note speaker at the launch of the WHO Rural and Remote Health Recruitment and Retention Guidelines.
- AHP attended conferences in San Francisco, New Orleans, Colorado, New York, London, Liverpool, Birmingham, Belgium, Netherlands, Vienna, Swaziland, and of course, South Africa.
- AHP’s stature in HRH grew throughout 2010. AHP staff members continued to build relationships across the region and are frequently called in by and meeting health ministers and senior health officials.
- New and improved mission statement was adopted: To support and enhance public healthcare systems in Africa through the provision of human resource solutions and services. These extend beyond the recruitment, placement and retention of management and staff, to include services directed toward building sustainability, such as consulting, information services, advocacy and marketing. Recognising the value of relationships, we conduct our work through people networks that allow us to mobilise resources within southern Africa and across the world.
- The AHP team grew to 29 full-time staff members.
- Record number of placements have been made by AHP in South Africa, Swaziland and Lesotho: 531 placements in total -
- 109 local-qualified healthcare professionals placed in South Africa.
- 363 foreign-qualified healthcare professionals placed in South Africa.
- 44 healthcare professionals placed in Swaziland.
- 15 healthcare professionals placed in Lesotho.
2011
- Immense online marketing programme that works more efficiently than previous marketing pursuits.
- Development of world-class monitoring and evaluation plan and the completion of the mid-year M&E report.
- Development and implementation of the Eastern Cape Rural Doctors Support Programme (ECRDSP). This programme has had such great success that in partnership with Broadreach and FPD – the ECRDSP will roll out into six additional districts in the coming months.
- Completion of community service officer (CSO) 2009 and 2010 research project reports.
- Africa Professional Placements has commenced and is growing having already signed on several big clients.
- AHP has been doing a great deal of consulting work with regard to healthcare policy and HRH, as well as partnering with the DoH on several projects.
- AHP still receives funding from Atlantic, DeBeers, Anglo American, PEPFAR and SIDA, and will be receiving additional funding from the Aurum Institute, the CDC and other anonymous donors.
- By the end of 2011 the AHP team stood at 34 – and is set to grow even larger in 2012.
- AHP has already made well over 300 placements (368 as of 1 August 2011).
- Record number of placements have been made by AHP in South Africa: 464 placements in total -
- 56 local-qualified healthcare professionals placed in South Africa,
- 66 Department of Health absorptions,
- 342 foreign-qualified healthcare professionals placed in South Africa.
2012
- In the first two months of 2011 alone, AHP has grown to 46 full-time staff members.
- From the 1st of April AHP will be launching an independent legal entity.
- Watch this space...
