Public sector district health system: Is seven to ten minutes enough for patient management?

Abstract

The municipality based district health system is a newly developed approach of the District Health Systems (DHS) to provide comprehensive primary health care to the communities in one or several districts in the city's municipalities, as part of the national health system of South Africa.The aim of the DHS is to promote primary health care services with the full integration of all existing services and the most efficient use of scarce resource under the management of a District Health Management Team (DHMT), governed by the district health authority (DHA).' This development seeks to integrate all the component of comprehensive health care (pro-motive, preventive, curative, rehabilitative and palliative) and the activities of other sectors such as education and welfare, in accordance with the broader needs of the community. However, public sector primary care providers are facing overwhelming demands for curative services which lead to missed opportunities in the preventative field. Unless protected time and dedicated resources are provided for prevention in the developing DHS, it may become a Diseased District System!