An evaluation of the implications of the revised HIV deployment policy on the healthcare service of the South African National Defence Force

[摘要] ENGLISH SUMMARY : The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) implemented a new HIV/AIDS deployment policy after the verdict in the court case between the SANDF and the labour unions. In terms of the verdict, the court held that the older HIV deployment policy was discriminating against HIV-infected members, because they were not being deployed externally. The implementation of the latter came with challenges at the mission areas, which was the rationale for this study.The study was conducted among healthcare workers who are employed by the South African Military Healthcare Service (SAMHS), which is one of the four arms of service of the SANDF. The healthcare workers are the custodians of the healthcare of the SANDF members and their families, retired members and their families, and military veteran members. These SANDF members, taken care of by healthcare workers of SAMHS, include even those who are infected with HIV/AIDS.Once the new healthcare policy took effect in 2009, the SANDF started to deploy HIV-infected members on the external missions. The part of the HIV deployment policy that was concentrated on the most is as follows: 'Prepared and supported military health capabilities, services and facilities to support members with health classification restrictions are in place, where reasonable and possible (DODD, 2009:2 9d).These HIV deployment policy changes had some impact on the daily healthcare rendering in the mission areas. The healthcare workers experienced some challenges which the SANDF has to review. These challenges include the procurement and issuing of medication to infected members and the lack of clear guidelines about monitoring their progress or deterioration.This qualitative study used non-probability sampling, with purposive sampling of the healthcare workers of the SAMHS. Healthcare workers were given questionnaires in order to identify the challenges and what may be the contributing factors to these challenges. The researcher also received some suggestions on how to solve these challenges in the mission areas. The completed questionnaires were returned by secured Department of Defence (DOD) email and personal fax of the researcher.The participants of this study also suggested questions for the questionnaire, which they saw was not covered by the questionnaire. The nursing discipline is the one that contributed the most to this research. The healthcare workers are well informed about the HIV deployment policy. There were no clear guidelines for healthcare workers prior to the deployment of monitoring HIV-infected members and issuing medication to members deploying for twelve months. They mentioned that demand for medication in the mission areas increased since the implementation of the new HIV deployment policy.The SANDF has to include health care workers on the implementation of policies. Clear guidelines have to be given to healthcare workers prior to deployment. The is still an opportunity of conducting more researches about the HIV deployment policy including research about the infected members The other disciplines have to be included, including the Office of the Directorate of HIV/AIDS. Another recommendation on the future researches on the HIV deployment policy is including the researcher as a participant observer on the deployment missions.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University