A framework for implementation of community-orientated primary care in the Metro Health Services, Cape Town, South Africa
Date
2020-12
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
AOSIS
Abstract
In South Africa, the national policy on re-engineering primary health care (PHC) supports the implementation of ward-based outreach teams with community health workers. In the Western Cape, a community-orientated primary care (COPC) approach has been adopted in provincial goals for 2030 and the key strategies for the improvement of district health services. This approach is expected to improve health and also save costs. A task team was established in the Metropolitan Health Services to develop an implementation framework for COPC. The framework was developed in an iterative process with four learning sites in the metropole over a period of 18 months. The framework consists of 10 inter-related elements: geographic delineation of PHC teams, composition of PHC teams, facility-based and community-based teamwork, partnership of government and non-government organisations, scope of practice, information system, community engagement, stakeholder engagement, training and development of PHC teams, system preparation and change management. This framework was implemented at the four learning sites and is now being taken to scale and further assessed in the metropole.
Description
CITATION: Mash, R. et al. 2020. A framework for implementation of community-orientated primary care in the Metro Health Services, Cape Town, South Africa. African Journal of Primary Health Care & Family Medicine, 12(1):a2632, doi:10.4102/phcfm.v12i1.2632.
The original publication is available at https://phcfm.org
The original publication is available at https://phcfm.org
Keywords
Community health services -- Cape Town (South Africa), Primary health care -- Cape Town (South Africa)
Citation
Mash, R. et al. 2020. A framework for implementation of community-orientated primary care in the Metro Health Services, Cape Town, South Africa. African Journal of Primary Health Care & Family Medicine, 12(1):a2632, doi:10.4102/phcfm.v12i1.2632.