District Health Barometer - Use

It is anticipated that the Barometer will be of value to several groups, although it is envisaged that packaging and presentation will need to be adjusted to meet their different needs and level of technical knowledge.

• Health Managers, line and programme (national, provincial, district) managers
• Politicians (national and provincial portfolio committees; district counsellors as IDPs become more realistic and comprehensive)
• Health workers
• Civil society including NGOs, CBOs and Academics
• Media
• International health community

A District Health Barometer could assist both Provinces and Politicians through providing a structured framework that covers an agreed selection of indicators for the reporting process. This would facilitate politicians and the media who report on this process to get a more objective view of progress between districts and provinces and through grouping ‘like with like’ more meaningful comparisons can be made. Managers at various levels have expressed the need to know how the health system is performing and achieving short term objectives year-on-year, linking performance to key objectives.

Resource allocation decisions (such as funding of PHC services) need norms to drive cost models, and at present this information is very limited. The District Health Barometer could facilitate collation of these data.

Health workers have indicated that they feel that they do not always get appropriate feedback on information that they supply to the District and Province. The Barometer will be a helpful tool to provide feedback.

Along with many health systems throughout the world South Africa has struggled to involve communities and users in the delivery of health care even though this is a fundamental tenet of PHC. The Barometer will assist community groups and NGOs operating at the local and provincial level through providing an objective and accessible assessment of progress.

Keywords	This Item is associated with the Following Keywords: District Health Barometer (DHB), HealthLink.
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