Prepared by: Dr. Musa Ajlouni January, 2010 - World Health ...

pharmacists and nurses respectively).No specific action plan was adopted to achievethese goals.5. HRH Utilization5.1 RecruitmentEach sub- health sector in Jordan has its own recruitment regulations and mechanisms.In MOH, the appointment of medical staff and health care professionals is done inaccordance with Civil Service Bureau regulations, standards, and salary scale. The MOHhas little control on these regulations and standards.Most physicians, female nurses, midwives and radiology technologists are recruited aftershort time of graduation. Other graduates as male nurses, dentists, pharmacists, andmost paramedics usually stay more than one year after their graduation before beingrecruited.MOH and RMS is the main employer of new health cadre graduates.5.2 Deployment and distribution mechanismsThe MOH continuously faces obstacles of placing professionals in rural areas and in thesouth region. Policies and appropriate incentives should be developed to attract andretain physicians in rural and poor areas.5.3 The work environmentThere is a problem of high turnover among medical and nursing staff in MOH, which hasresulted in shortages in health care providers, due to lack of incentives, low salary scaleand remunerations in comparison with university hospitals, RMS, private sector and GulfStates offered opportunities.5.4 Payment mechanismsMOH and RMS employees are paid salary and benefits according to the civil/armyservice regulations and the category, grade/level and step or rank to which they havebeen allocated. In the private health sector, every hospital has its own salary scaleregulations. Most physicians working in private hospitals are self employed in their ownclinics. They are paid by patients or health insurance programs according to fee-for –service basis. Prospective payment mechanisms are not common in Jordan.5.5 Supervision systems and mechanismsThe MOH has full authority to license health professionals and withhold or abstain fromgranting professionals' licensure. Performance appraisals are conducted periodically anddocumented for the majority of staff. Performance evaluations within the MOH and otherpublic sectors tend to be based on whether an employee abides by working hours andon their behavior, rather than on work performance.6. Governance for HRH6.1 HRH policies and plansThe Human Resource Development (HRD) policy is part of the general health policy.However, most components of the HRH policy are not fully implemented; still seem to bedeveloped more for the sake of having a policy and a plan. A policy formulation exerciseis meaningful only if its purpose is clearly spelled out and seen as a real opportunity forchange. The HRH policy in Jordan has to be translated into a work plan with clearlydefined objectives, strategies and expected results, with a time-frame and resourcesJordan HRH Profile,Musa Ajlouni (Jan 2010) 9