An Exploration of the Roles of Environmental Health Practitioners in EkurhuleniHealth District, Gauteng

Abstract

Introduction Environmental health services in South Africa are aimed at protecting health by addressing and combating threats and dangers in the environment, specifically physical, social and chemical threats. Environmental Health Practitioners (EHPs) play an important front-line role in preventing environmental hazards from negatively impacting and threatening the quality of life. The functions of EHPs are allocated according to the three spheres of government: national, provincial and local. However, most of the environmental health services were devolved to be the function of the municipalities as Municipal Health Services. When these functions were moved to municipality, important resources such as finance and human resources were not moved. This created challenges in providing these services. Aim The study aimed to explore the roles of Environmental Health Practitioners in the Ekurhuleni Health District in the Gauteng Province. Methods An exploratory qualitative study approach was conducted. 16 participants; 10 EHPs, two supervisors and four managers were purposively selected. Using semi-structured interview guides and all the interviews were recorded and transcribed. A thematic analysis was used to analyze the qualitative data and generate themes on the roles of EHPs in the Ekurhuleni District. Results The findings reveal that there is ambiguity regarding the roles of EHPs in the Ekurhuleni health district. The study also discovered that EHPs based in the district felt that it would better for them to be moved to the municipality because according to the legislation, most of the main environmental health functions are assigned to municipality. The EHPs highlighted several challenges that compromised the provision of environmental health services in the district of Ekurhuleni. These included health workforce constraints, funding challenges which resulted in limitations in technical items and tools of trade, including the dynamics around legislative frameworks. The findings in this study also revealed that due to the increasing population growth rate and increasing burden of diseases outbreaks, there is a need to train and employ more EHPs v to improve WHO and South African norms and standards. It was further revealed that to successfully implement the programme there should be increased budget, availability of resources, improved communication, and staff development. Conclusion EHPs play a crucial role in the provision of environmental health services in the community at a local level of government. Although the legislation is clear about who is doing what and where, there are gaps identified such human and financial resources that hinder the implementation of the devolved functions and roles of EHPs. There is a need for decision-makers to examine the extent to which all EHPs at a district level could be under municipality at the Local Government sphere and carry out their roles as outlined in the legislative framework.