Hospital Strategy Project, South Africa

Health Partners Southern Africa participated in the preparation of the strategic plans for transforming South Africa's 423 public hospitals.

 

These plans aimed to:

  • redress past inequity in hospital access
  • deal with serious inefficiency and declining quality of care
  • redirect resources to primary health care.

 

The planning exercise took place at national level and within each of the country's nine provinces.

 

The plans covered five main initiatives:

  • The development of national affordability guidelines for rationalising hospital services and staff for the whole country and for all levels of care
  • A national policy framework and implementation plan for decentralisation and reform of hospital management
  • Defining a labour relations policy in the management of hospitals
  • Setting out a national strategy for hospital cost recovery
  • The analysis of 'contracting out' in public hospitals.