The supply of and demand for medical specialists in South Africa

Jodi Wishnia, Dave Strugnell, Anja Smith and Shivani Ranchod

Over the last two years, the Percept team have been working on an extensive project to support the long-term planning for medical specialists in South Africa. We linked datasets across the public and private sectors in a novel way – providing the most accurate estimates to date of the extent of medical specialist capacity in the country (9,731) , and the first estimates ever produced of the proportion of public-sector specialists working in the private sector (35%). This work was funded by the Discovery Foundation, and overseen by a high-profile independent reference group – a model for privately-funded research for the public good. The research has been placed in the public domain as a contribution to knowledge and to support further research into this all-important area of the health system. Please get in touch with us if you would like access to the accompanying Excel model, if you have feedback on the work, or if you would like to contribute to the extension of the work to include nurses, GPs and other health professionals.