Abstract
While there has been a plethora of studies that addresses migration in Africa, many have yet to successfully unpack the effects of brain drain on the South African health sector. Using textual analysis of the available literature relevant to the topic under consideration; this work seeks to identify the major structural and socio-economic push factors that drive the migration of health professionals in South Africa, relying on Revestain’s laws of migration and Lee’s push/pull theory of migration. The study also looks at explaining other factors that contribute to the migration of health professionals in South Africa. We argue that for South Africa to retain health professionals, the government needs to increase the training of health workers, improve their working conditions and security, upgrade infrastructure and ensure availability of resources as well as develop a more open immigration policy prioritizing skilled immigration.
Highlights
The effective functioning of any health sector around the world, in South Africa, is highly dependent on the availability of skilled health professionals (World Health Organization, 2014)
In New-Zealand alone, there are 600 South African practicing medical doctors, resulting in South Africa incurring a loss of R481 million ($37 million).In 2001, the South African government demanded that Canada halts the recruitment of South African medical doctors, owing to the fact that South Africa had incurred a loss of $1.41 billion on returns from its investments on its medical doctors that had emigrated (Pang, 2002; Ehman & Sullivan, 2001)
While the number of emigrating professionals has decreased, especially nurses, it is imperative that the push factors that drive brain drain in South Africa are identified and dealt with to prevent further loss of skilled health professionals
Summary
The effective functioning of any health sector around the world, in South Africa, is highly dependent on the availability of skilled health professionals (World Health Organization, 2014). Thousands of highly skilled health professionals (nurses, doctors and other paramedical professionals) have left the country in search of better opportunities abroad, which has negatively impacted the efficient functioning of the heath sector, reducing the overall quality of medical care offered by South African health institutions (Makoni, 2009; Brandsouthafrica, 2002). Whilst one may claim that globalization has somewhat led to the increase in the migration of health workers in South Africa, it has made it easier for skills mobility (Czaika & de Haas, 2014). South Africa has undoubtedly experienced a net outflow of health workers
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