The Status of Clinic Committees in Primary Level - Health Systems ...

The Status of Clinic Committees in Primary Level Clinics in South Africa
Table 1:
Province
Clinic committees and community health centre committees in South Africa
% CHC that
had met
recently
% health
workers
%
community
members
% female
community
members
% male
community
members
% young
community
members
18-24years
Eastern Cape 57 18 82 52 48 6
Free State 26 16 84 57 43 9
Gauteng 11 21 79 67 33 14
KwaZulu-Natal 55 21 79 45 55 6
Limpopo 48 18 82 48 52 0
Mpumalanga 28 16 84 53 47 14
Northern Cape 17 16 84 56 44 8
North West 18 10 90 71 29 4
Western Cape 28 21 79 70 30 8
South Africa 35 18 82 55 45 7
Source: Reagon et al. 2003
Given the paucity of information that exists on health governance structures such as clinic committees and
community health committees, and specifically since the promulgation of the National Health Act in 2004
which formally provided for their establishment, this study aimed to provide a more up to date account of the
existence and functioning of clinic committees in the 9 provinces in South Africa.
1.4 Study purpose
The study took the form of an audit of all clinics and community health centres with reliable telephone numbers
in the country in order to ascertain whether clinic committees existed at each of the public health facilities
at a primary care level. In addition to this, the study also sought to gather information on the composition,
membership and activities of existing clinic committees. Finally, the study also sought to gather information on
the factors that hinder or facilitate the effective functioning of clinic committees.
The collection of such information is considered to be particularly useful for the various stakeholders within the
public health sector given that there is currently no updated national information, subsequent to the promulgation
of the National Health Act, on how many clinic committees exist in the country. It was envisaged that both the
quantitative and qualitative information collected in this study would provide some salutary insights into the
extent and nature of community participation through the mechanism of clinic committees.
Additionally, the findings of this study will help to identify those clinics and community health centres that
might possibly be in need of some support in forming their clinic committees, which will subsequently assist
in the community taking an active role in the needs analysis, planning and prioritisng of health of services,
development of Integrated District Plans (IDPs) and implementation of general primary health care in their
catchment areas.
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