district health services

Briefing note on local government health service financing and expenditure and moving towards monitoring equity in local government health services

Published by: 
Health Systems Trust
At present, some (but not all) municipalities provide health services. There is considerable diversity between municipalities in relation to the range and extent of health service provision. Historically, local government health services have been restricted largely to the provision of preventive, promotive and rehabilitative primary care services, with particular emphasis on communicable disease control and environmental health. In addition, some municipalities provide ambulance services on an agency basis for the respective provinces (i.e. ambulance services have historically been a provincial responsibility, but in most cases provinces pay municipalities to provide these services on their behalf). In an effort to reduce fragmentation of health services, some municipalities are increasingly providing integrated preventive and curative primary care services.

Transport management: A key component of effective health care

Volume: 
1
Series Name: 
Kwik Skwiz
Published by: 
Health Systems Trust

Step-by-step approach to implementing an effective transport management system.Transport is not only an expensive resource, but is also critical to effective health care delivery. A lack of transport and the poor use of existing vehicles can lead to problems such as poor supplies of drugs to clinics, inadequate supervision of clinic staff, difficulties in referring patients between facilities, infrequent visits to schools by the school health team, and a lack of community outreach health services or mobile clinic services. The ISDS experience suggests that it is imperative for district health services to focus on developing good management for transport.