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Item Aids and the workplace with a specific focus on employee benefits: Issues and responses(Centre for Health Policy - School of Public Health - University of the Witwatersrand, 2001) Stevens, MarionEXECUTIVE SUMMARYThis report reflects the first activity in a three-year research project, funded by the European Union, which is part of a programme of support to NGOs which are working with communities to combat discrimination against and provide support for people with HIV/AIDS. The aim of the project is to investigate, using a variety of methods, the world of AIDS and the workplace with a specific focus on employee benefits. These benefits include medical schemes and other health benefits, death, disability and pension funds. The research will concentrate on the experience of formally employed, unskilled or semi-skilled workers who are vulnerable because employers consider them dispensable or replaceable should they get ill or die, and whose employee benefits may be eroded in the face of HIV. By creating workplaces which are supportive of individual employees, one sustains households and, in turn, the broader society. This report presents the findings of an initial situational analysis of responses to HIV in the workplace, using a policy analysis methodology, which combined documentation review and key informant interviews with 27 players in the field.
The report starts with a review of the South African literature and documentation on HIV/AIDS and the workplace. Available evidence on the direct and indirect impacts of HIV on workplaces and the current models used to project impacts are presented; the legal and policy frameworks relevant to AIDS in the workplace are summarised; and a chronology of key events and processes that have informed this area are noted.
The main body of the report outlines responses to HIV/AIDS of the three major players: government, the private sector including NGOs, and trade unions. In each sector consideration is given to the areas of: leadership and organisational responses, networking and policy processes, and workplace policies and programmes including health care.
While a legal framework and a set of legal precedents for a rights-based orientation to HIV in the workplace have been established, prohibiting, for example, pre-employment HIV testing, a consistent and sound response to HIV in the workplace has yet to emerge. The report concludes that there is a need for strong, bold and coherent leadership in all sectors of society.
Responsibility for workplace HIV/AIDS programmes has generally been delegated to human resource departments, rather than being seen as a core management issue. The overall view noted by stakeholders was of strategic failures in managing HIV/AIDS in the workplace due to the lack centralised responsibility and commitment within organisations. The business sector and the trade union movement need to ensure that HIV/AIDS is fore-grounded as an issue and that it is the concern of the most senior leaders in their sectors. Many interviewees also felt that there was a need for better alliances and networking on workplace issues, and that government needed to play a leadership role in this regard.
Respondents across sectors called for planning to be informed by better data. These data need to be independent, open to scrutiny and separate from private interests.
Workplace benefits have undergone considerable restructuring in response to HIV. In the early-nineties schemes changed from defined benefit to defined contributions, motivated by the perceived impact of HIV on risk benefits. During the late-nineties some schemes evolved from group schemes to individualised packages, anti-retroviral drugs became more available in medical schemes, the outsourcing of unskilled functions appeared as a particular response to HIV and new HIV insurance packages became available for workplaces. During v AIDS and THE WORKPLACE WITH A SPECIFIC FOCUS ON EMPLOYEE BENEFITS: ISSUES AND RESPONSES 2001. Centre for Health Policy. 2001, several companies announced their intentions to provide anti-retroviral treatment for semi-skilled and unskilled employees. These changes have been in response to assessments of direct and indirect HIV-related costs and the requirement to adapt to the reforming legal framework. Developments in the field have prompted the emergence of a range of new players dealing with disease management and impact assessments.
The effect of this restructuring has been several fold. Individuals often have to negotiate for benefits directly with insurance companies, as opposed to their companies taking responsibility for this. This has left employees more vulnerable. While routine pre-employment testing is no longer legal, it is apparent that many individuals are losing cover through pre-benefit testing. As a contrary trend, there is a growing realisation, in the face of declining drug prices, that HIV/AIDS treatment is affordable and cost effective in managing the health of employees. However, there is the danger that anti-retroviral therapy, for example, will be offered to some employees and not others. This is clearly of concern in terms of equity and discrimination.
Finally, there is a need to counter the notion that businesses will be able to cope with the HIV/AIDS pandemic because of ‘the ease of substitution’ . This rationale is neither positive nor constructive. Businesses need to balance their fiduciary duties by remaining profitable and viable yet being fair and socially responsible.
Item Does expanding fiscal space lead to improved funding of the health sector in developing countries?: lessons from Kenya, Lagos State (Nigeria) and South Africa(Taylor & Francis, 2018-05-16) Doherty, Jane Tanya; Kirigia, Doris; Okoli, Chijioke; Chuma, Jane; Ezumah, N; Ichoku, Hyacinth; Hanson, Kara; McIntyre, DianeThis article examines whether increased tax revenue in the three territories of Kenya, Lagos State (Nigeria) and South Africa was accompanied by improved resource allocation to their public health sectors, and explores the reasons underlying the observed trends.Item The impact of antiretroviral therapy on symptom burden among HIV outpatients with low CD4 count in rural Uganda: nested longitudinal cohort study(Springer Nature, 2017-07-13) Wakeham, Katie; Harding, Richard; Levin, Jonathan; Parkes-Ratanshi, Rosalind; Kamali, Anatoli; Lalloo, David GIndividuals with HIV have a high prevalence of physical and psychological symptoms throughout their disease course. Despite the clinical and public health implications of unresolved pain and symptoms, little is known about the effect of anti-retroviral therapy (ART) on these outcomes. This study aimed to assess the impact on symptom burden for the year after ART initiation in individuals with a CD4 count <200 cells/uL in Uganda.Item Implementation process and quality of a primary health care system improvement initiative in a decentralized context A retrospective appraisal using the quality implementation framework(2018-09-14) Eboreime E; Eyles J; Nxumalo NSummary Background Effective implementation processes are essential in achieving desired outcomes of health initiatives. Whereas many approaches to implementation may seem straightforward, careful advanced planning, multiple stakeholder involvements, and addressing other contextual constraints needed for quality implementation are complex. Consequently, there have been recent calls for more theory‐informed implementation science in health systems strengthening. This study applies the quality implementation framework (QIF) developed by Meyers, Durlak, and Wandersman to identify and explain observed implementation gaps in a primary health care system improvement intervention in Nigeria. Methods We conducted a retrospective process appraisal by analyzing contents of 39 policy document and 15 key informant interviews. Using the QIF, we assessed challenges in the implementation processes and quality of an improvement model across the tiers of Nigeria's decentralized health system. Results Significant process gaps were identified that may have affected subnational implementation quality. Key challenges observed include inadequate stakeholder engagements and poor fidelity to planned implementation processes. Although needs and fit assessments, organizational capacity building, and development of implementation plans at national level were relatively well carried out, these were not effective in ensuring quality and sustainability at the subnational level. Conclusions Implementing initiatives between levels of governance is more complex than within a tier. Adequate preintervention planning, understanding, and engaging the various interests across the governance spectrum are key to improving quality.Item Integrating community health workers into the formal health system to improve performance A qualitative study on the role of onsite supervision in the South African programme(2019) Tseng m; Grifiths f; De dadt jAbstract Objectives To explore the role of on-site supervision in community health worker (CHW) programmes and CHW integration into the health system. We compared the functioning of CHW teams reporting to a clinic-based nurse with teams supervised by a community-based nurse. We also consider whether a junior nurse can provide adequate supervision, given the shortage of senior nurses. Design A case study approach to study six CHW teams with different configurations of supervision and location. We used a range of qualitative methods: observation of CHW and their supervisors (126 days), focus group discussions (12) and interviews (117). Setting South Africa where a national CHW programme is being implemented with on-site supervision. Participants CHWs, their supervisors, clinic managers and staff, district managers, key informants from the community and CHW clients. Results Effective supervisors supported CHWs through household visits, on-the-job training, debriefing, reviewing CHWs’ daily logs and assistance with compiling reports. CHWs led by senior nurses were motivated and performed a greater range of tasks; junior nurses in these teams could better fulfil their role. Clinic-based teams with senior supervisors were better integrated and more able to ensure continuity of care. In contrast, teams with only junior supervisors, or based in the community, had less engagement with clinic staff, and were less able to ensure necessary care for patients, resulting in lower levels of trust from clients. Conclusion Senior supervisors raised CHW skills, and successfully negotiated a place for CHWs in the health system. Collaboration with clinic staff reduced CHWs’ marginalisation and increased motivation. Despite being clinic-based, teams without senior supervisors had lower skill levels and were less integrated into the health system. This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported (CC BY 4.0) license, which permits others to copy, redistribute, remix, transform and build upon this work for any purpose, provided the original work is properly cited, a link to the licence is given, and indication of whether changes were made. See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.Item Sociodemographic contributors to health and safety of mine workers in South Africa(2019-02-17) Jodi Pelders; Gill Nelson