Social exclusion and the perspectives of health care providers on migrants in Gauteng public health facilities, South Africa.

Background: Universal health coverage (UHC) for all people, regardless of citizenship, is a global priority. Health care providers are central to the achievement of UHC, and their attitudes and behaviour could either advance or impede UHC for migrants. Using a social exclusion conceptual framework, this study examined the perspectives of health care providers on delivering health services to migrants in public health facilities in Gauteng Province, South Africa.

Methods: We used stratified, random sampling to select 13 public health facilities. All health care providers working in ambulatory care were invited to complete a self-administered questionnaire. In addition to socio-demographic information, the questionnaire asked health care providers if they had witnessed discrimination against migrants at work, and measured their perspectives on social exclusionary views and practices. Multiple regression analysis was used to identify predictors of more exclusionary perspectives for each item.

Results: 277 of 308 health care providers participated in the study-a response rate of 90%. The participants were predominantly female (77.6%) and nurses (51.9%), and had worked for an average of 6.8 years in their facilities. 19.2% of health care providers reported that they had witnessed discrimination against migrants, while 20.0% reported differential treatment of migrant patients. Exclusionary perspectives varied across the different items, and for different provider groups. Enrolled nurses and nursing assistants were significantly more exclusionary on a number of items, while the opposite was found for providers born outside South Africa. For some questions, female providers held more exclusionary perspectives and this was also the case for providers from higher levels of care.

Conclusion: Health care providers are critical to inclusive UHC. Social exclusionary views or practices must be addressed through enabling health policies; training in culture-sensitivity, ethics and human rights; and advocacy to ensure that health care providers uphold their professional obligations to all patients.