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‘Going private’: a qualitative comparison of medical specialists’ job satisfaction in the public and private sectors of South Africa

Human Resources for HealthPublished 3 January 2013Open access
John Ashmore
Citations222
SJR quartileQ1
SJR score1.57
SNIP1.92
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TL;DR

It is demonstrated that although there are strong financial incentives for specialists to migrate from the public to the private sector, public work can be attractive in some ways, and that it is not necessarily just a matter of putting more money into the public sector to increase retention.

Abstract

The results are useful for understanding both what brings specialists to migrate to the private sector, and what keeps some working in the public sector. Policy recommendations center around boosting public sector resources and building trust of the public sector through including health workers more in decision-making, inter alia. These interventions may be more cost-effective for retention than wage increases, and imply that it is not necessarily just a matter of putting more money into the public sector to increase retention.

Keywords

Health Professions