Staunching the flow: The brain drain and health professional retention strategies in South Africa

South Africa has experienced a major outflow of health professionals since the end of apartheid in 1994 and this brain drain has led to a significant decline in the quality of healthcare across the country’s health institutions. This chapter provides a critical assessment of South Africa’s health professional retention strategies and asks if these have led to any significant shifts in the emigration intentions of highly skilled health professionals (medical doctors and specialists, dentists and pharmacists). The chapter provides an overview of the scale of the brain drain from the country and the emigration intentions of those still there and in training. It then examines the various strategies that the government has adopted to staunch the flow. Finally, using data from 2007 and 2013 surveys of health professionals by the Southern African Migration Program, the chapter assesses whether these strategies have had any discernible impact.