M.P.H.(Health Policy and Management), Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, 2008The provision of rehabilitation services has received little attention within the context of health sector
reforms in South Africa. This study explores the human resource (HR) management component of the
National Rehabilitation Policy (NRP), formulated to improve access to rehabilitation services within the
public health sector. Qualitative methodology was used to understand the alignment of policy to
practice, with data derived from both the deductive approach (document reviews); and inductive
approach (key informant interviews and focus group discussions). The findings reveal that there is a
gap between policy and practice. Resistance to integration, problems with professional identity and
capacity constraints at national, provincial and local levels hindered the implementation of an integrated
rehabilitation service. In addition, polices and norms and standards that aim to guide HR in public
health are not coherent. These directly influence HR performance, and have served to highlight the
social and institutional phenomena impacting on service delivery
