Occupational Health Barriers in South Africa: A Call for Ubuntu

TL;DR

This paper explores how the South African philosophy of Ubuntu can help address challenges in occupational health services for public health workers, especially in low- and middle-income countries.

Contribution

The paper introduces Ubuntu as a novel framework to improve occupational health service implementation and sustainability in public health systems.

Findings

Occupational health challenges in LMICs include poor leadership and overworked professionals.

Ubuntu offers a cultural approach to strengthen collaboration and sustainability in OH services.

The absence of Ubuntu contributes to ineffective OH service implementation during crises like the pandemic.

Abstract

Many low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) grapple with shortages of health workers, a crucial component of robust health systems. The COVID-19 pandemic underscored the imperative for appropriate staffing of health systems and the occupational health (OH) threats to health workers. Issues related to accessibility, coverage, and utilization of OH services in public sector health facilities within LMICs were particularly accentuated during the pandemic. This paper draws on the observations and experiences of researchers engaged in an international collaboration to consider how the South African concept of Ubuntu provides a promising way to understand and address the challenges encountered in establishing and sustaining OH services in public sector health facilities. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the collaborators actively participated in implementing and studying OH and infection prevention and control measures for health workers in South Africa and internationally as part of the World Health Organizations’ Collaborating Centres for Occupational Health. The study identified obstacles in establishing, providing, maintaining and sustaining such measures during the pandemic. These challenges were attributed to lack of leadership/stewardship, inadequate use of intelligence systems for decision-making, ineffective health and safety committees, inactive trade unions, and the strain on occupational health professionals who were incapacitated and overworked. These shortcomings are, in part, linked to the absence of the Ubuntu philosophy in implementation and sustenance of OH services in LMICs.