Abstract:
The rural health care facilities have been facing the critical shortage of medical doctors where approximately 43% of the people in the rural areas often face greater health challenges such as having access to a mere 12% of the medical workforce in the Republic of South Africa (RSA) (Motala and Van Wyk, 2016:74). The reforms made after 1994 have thus, failed to bring about the necessary change in human resources for health (HRH) to improve access to health, especially in the rural areas. Various intervention measures such as the introduction of scarce skill allowance, rural allowance, community service, were among some of the interventions adopted by Northern Cape Department of Health (NDoH) intended to improve health care service delivery in the rural districts. One of the interventions, since 2000, to improve health care services in rural communities was to recruit candidates from poor communities to study medicine in Cuba through the Mandela-Castro Medical Collaboration Programme (MCMCP). The purpose of this study was to assess whether the MCMCP have assisted to promote health care service delivery in the small district hospitals in the Frances Baard (FBDM) area in the Northern Cape Province (NCP). To investigate the problem highlighted above, the research approach applied was deductive in nature and used quantitative data to generate propositions. The study was based on quantitative research and the non-experimental design namely an opinion-based survey in the form of a structured questionnaire to determine the attitude of hospital staff on the impact of the MCMCP in promoting health care service delivery in the FBDM hospitals, NCP was used. It was demonstrated that the provision of health care in the FBDM hospitals was mainly delivered by female health professionals and that the existing health professionals were aging. Although, it was concluded that RSA-Cuban trained medical doctors who took part in the MCMCP programme seemed to have a positive impact in the rural health care facilities, they had, however, demonstrated a degree of uncertainty to remain in the rural areas to alleviate the shortage of doctors. The suggested recommendations could be useful to improve the MCMCP and health care service delivery in FB district hospitals in NCP. The study also made a contribution to the theory of health care service delivery in the context of SA.
