It is my pleasure to present the 13th edition of the District Health Barometer (DHB) which provides information across a wide
range of district health services and spans 43 indicators.
This annual publication continues to provide policy makers, health care workers, planners, researchers, academics and other consumers of national health system information a unique overview of the performance of public health services in South Africa.
A new development in the previous edition of the DHB was the alignment of the format of the district chapters to the District Health Plan (DHP) template of the National Department of Health (NDoH). This has considerably assisted district managers in the development of their DHPs and improved the efficiency of the planning process.
This year, after consultation with key stakeholders and users of the DHB, we have made further refinements to the format, and divided the publication into two distinct but interlinked offerings: the DHB: District Health Profiles 2017/18 and the District Health Barometer 2017/18. We have also worked together with the NDoH in developing the DHP template for the 2019/20 – 2021/22 period which has resulted in a more user-friendly tool and greater congruence between the template and the information provided in the DHB.
These enhancements will contribute to a more efficient planning process in the districts and enable district managers to spend more time on the development of action plans to address the challenges and needs in their respective districts. We are grateful to the NDoH for their continuing financial support and collaboration, since without their invaluable contribution this important publication would not be possible.
As always, we welcome commentary and feedback that facilitates further improvement of the District Health Barometer, thus enhancing the value to the health system of future editions.
Dr Themba L. Moeti
Chief Executive Officer
Health Systems Trust
Erratum: 8 April 2019
Please take note of the following changes to the printed version of the 2018/19 edition of the District Health Barometer:
The first paragraph has been replaced with the following:
Table 3 shows the total number of clients seen at a health facility in order to receive ART in the period 2013/14 – 2017/18. There was a decline of 33 689 children under 15 years seen between 2016/17 and 2017/18 in the Free State, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and North West provinces. Reasons for this decrease are unclear but could partly be attributed to poor data quality. The total number of clients on ART seen at facilities in the country increased from 30 389 619 in 2013/14 to 48 554 537 in 2017/18, with a yearly increase in the numbers that ranged from 2 880 106 to 5 976 968. The number of clients remaining on ART seen at facilities increased to 4 964 214 between 2016/17 and 2017/18.
The title and column headings of Table 3 on pages 202 and 203 have been replaced as follows:
Table 3: Clients on ART seen at a health facility by province, 2013/14 – 2017/18: increase/decrease year on year in numbers and percentage increase/decrease year on year
