Views of frontline service providers on the accreditation of occupational health services in South Africa

ABSTRACT

Background: In South Africa, occupational health services are delivered in a fragmented and complex environment. There is, however, a global emphasis on high-quality, universal occupational health coverage. Objective: To describe occupational health practitioners' perceptions of the accreditation of occupational health services. Methods: We used a mixed methods approach, which combined a self-administered web-based survey of 475 occupational health nurses and 11 semi-structured focus group discussions, which included a broad selection of occupational health stakeholders. Results: The majority of respondents supported the statutory accreditation of healthcare services for workers, provided that a phased approach is used. Challenges that need to be addressed for a successful and sustainable accreditation system include the current lack of national standards for occupational health, human resource shortages, potentially high costs of accreditation, and the suboptimal and fragmented governance of occupational health services. Conclusion: The majority of respondents were of the opinion that statutory accreditation of occupational health services will improve the quality-of-service delivery. However, prerequisites for successful and sustainable implementation of accreditation include improved collaboration between Government departments, coalition building with all stakeholders, the development of specific standards against which a service can be assessed, and education and training of occupational health practitioners to meet the established standards