Management of rehabilitation personnel within the context of the National Rehabilitation Policy

Abstract

The provision of rehabilitation services has received little attention within the context of health sector reforms in South Africa. This study explores the human resource (HR) management component of the National Rehabilitation Policy (NRP), formulated to improve access to rehabilitation services within the public health sector. Qualitative methodology was used to understand the alignment of policy to practice, with data derived from both the deductive approach (document reviews); and inductive approach (key informant interviews and focus group discussions). The findings reveal that there is a gap between policy and practice. Resistance to integration, problems with professional identity and capacity constraints at national, provincial and local levels hindered the implementation of an integrated rehabilitation service. In addition, polices and norms and standards that aim to guide HR in public health are not coherent. These directly influence HR performance, and have served to highlight the social and institutional phenomena impacting on service delivery.