Uptake of public sector sessional contracts by private general practitioners in South Africa
The uptake of public sector work among private GPs was low under the contract conditions offered by government
Abstract
This paper explores the pro-social preferences of private sector general practitioners (GPs) in South Africa in relation to a recent policy initiative aimed at persuading them to work for a number of hours each month in public sector clinics. We report on a pilot study which used a discrete choice experiment (DCE) with a national sample of GPs to evaluate their interest in these sessional contracts, and the relative importance of different contract elements.
We found that the overall uptake of public sector work among private GPs was likely to be low under the contract conditions being offered by government. The DCE results suggested that GPs were more motivated by their own personal welfare than the potential benefit to public sector patients. However, we also demonstrated significant heterogeneity in the pro-social preferences of private GPs, and identified a small but significant group with more pro-social tendencies who were relatively enthusiastic about contributing to the public sector.
This research is supported by the Department for International Development’s RESYST (Resilient and Responsive Health Systems) programme which is led by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
Citation
Blaauw, D.; Lagarde, M. RESYST Working Paper 8: Uptake of public sector sessional contracts by private general practitioners in South Africa. RESYST Consortium, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK (2015) 35 pp.
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