Publications
HST provides free electronic access to over 500 health systems research related reports, publications and papers. Close to 300 of these are publications that have been commissioned and funded by the Trust. Topics include among others district systems development, drug supply management, human resource development, informatics, legislation, finance, environmental health, mental health, lessons learnt, nutrition and sexually transmitted diseases / HIV/AIDS. The main publication of the HST is the annual South African Health Review. From 2005 all HST publications will be available in low resolution only. To explore the range of publications HST offers use the Advanced search to search using a variety of criteria.

These Cabinet decisions are:

• Municipal Health Services will be defined as environmental health services
• Municipal Health services will be a function of metropolitan and district municipalities and
• In order to provide for a smooth transition, these decisions will come into effect on 1 July 2004 and all municipalities must continue to provide, until then, the health services that they currently provide.

The only way to prepare to implement these decisions and to take the District Health System forward is through functional integration. This has been recognized for some time. The Minister of Health challenged all those attending the February 2002 DHS conference to commit themselves to developing one functionally integrated district per province within a year, and the Health MinMEC in July 2002 decided that functional integration must be implemented in all health districts.

Without a strategic approach, it is likely that the current fragmentation and duplication of PHC will continue for several years. Functional integration provides a process to improve quality of care through greater integration of the health system. It has been tried over the past few years and there are both successes and failures, and challenges to implementation. Crucial to the success of functional integration are a number of key requirements. This document builds on experiences around the country and provides guidelines for successful implementation of the MinMEC mandate for functional integration. A checklist to assess progress with functional integration is provided in the Appendix.