District Health Barometer 2008/09

PHC (Non-Hospital) Expenditure per Patient Visit

This indicator measures the average cost of a patient visit to a primary care facility. In practice it is the average cost to the health service of a patient visit to a community health centre, clinic, satellite clinic or mobile clinic (but excluding district hospitals) - and which average cost includes the cost of managing the district1.

Cost Per Patient Day Equivalent in District Hospitals

This indicator measures how the resources available to the hospital are being spent and is a marker of the efficiency of the hospital as a whole. It is a composite process indicator in that it links financial data with service-related data from the hospital admissions and outpatients.

The indicator measures the average cost per patient, per day, seen at a district hospital, and is expressed as Rands per patient day equivalent. The indicator value is calculated by dividing the total expenditure1 of the hospital by the patient day equivalent (PDE)2.

Proportion of District Health Services Expenditure on District Management

The proportion of total district expenditure for management activities during the 2008/09 financial year, including the management of district hospitals, was 5.6%. This proportion is the highest over the past four years the lowest being 4.7% in 2006/07.

Figure 1, Percentage of district health services expenditure on management, by district, 2008/09, shows the variation in the proportion of total expenditure on management2 country-wide.

Proportion of District Health Services Expenditure on District Hospitals

This indicator shows the proportion of total district expenditure on hospitals and is helpful in assessing the focus of service delivery in the district. The proportion of total district expenditure on district hospitals during 2008/09 was 41.8% and this proportion has been in an annual and steady decline from 44.9% in 2005/06.

Total PHC Expenditure per Capita and PHC Non-Hospital Expenditure per Capita

Part A: Indicator Comparisons by District

1. Input indicators

In 2008/09 the District Health Services Programme (Programme 2) spent R31.4 billion1 on health care according to Treasury's Provincial Budgets and Expenditure Review2. This is up from R18.4 billion in 2005/06 and is estimated to reach R41 billion in 2011/12 the significant growth attributable to the increased spending on primary health care and HIV/AIDS.