What does primary health care cost and can we afford to find out? Rationale and methodology for a cost analysis of the Diepkloof Community Health Centre, Soweto.
Accurate information on the costs of providing primary health care (PHC) services is now an urgent priority for health policy makers and planners, if the Government's stated commitment to an adequate PHC system is to be realised. Cost information is also a critical management tool for both public and private sector providers. In this context, the inability of public sector PHC providers to generate accurate cost accounting information is a serious shortcoming. In an attempt to address this lack of local PHC cost data, a detailed analysis of the costs of PHC services was undertaken at the Diepkloof Community Health Centre (DK) in Soweto during 1990. The study aimed to assess the cost of each service provided at DK and where possible, to identify areas of inefficiency. This paper is the first of two that report the findings of this study. It briefly describes the methodology employed and presents the major results. These raise several important management issues. Most importantly, the study suggests that there is excess capacity in the administrative and in several of the clinical areas of this community health centre; this implies that the average cost per service could be reduced in several areas. Certain services, such as home visits, are particularly expensive and require careful evaluation. The policy implications of this analysis are also examined. The high cost of several services implies that extension of this type of PHC service to all urban and rural areas is likely to be unaffordable.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Broomberg
J
J
Department of Community Health, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.
Rees
H
H
D003153:Community Health Services / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003253:Consultants; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D006801:Humans; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012424:Rural Population; D013019:South Africa; D014505:Urban Population