Recent developments in family practice in the UK - can South Africa learn by example?

Abstract

South Africa is just one of the many countries trying to balance the conflict between the seemingly unlimited demand for health care and the limited resources available. As government and health service managers battle to persuade clinicians to adhere to financial controls, clinicians throughout the system try to produce quality service. Although, historically, doctors have proved remarkably resistant to changing their behavior in response to management pressure, opportunities to bring about effective change do arise. In the United Kingdom, such opportunities have arisen as a result of public and governmental pressures due to medical negligence: 2003 has seen the introduction of radical new interventions that demonstrate a huge commitment of increased resources to primary care and the acceptance by the majority of the United Kingdom's general practitioners of a new contract with tight managerial controls. This paper describes the background that led up to this change and discusses the possible lessons to be learned for South Africa.