The 2015/16 District Health Barometer (DHB) provides an overview of the delivery of primary health care (PHC) in the public health sector across the provinces and districts of South Africa. The DHB has been issued every year since 2005, and draws data from the District Health Information Software (DHIS), the Ideal Clinic Realisation and Maintenance system, Statistics South Africa (StatsSA), the National Treasury Basic Accounting System (BAS), the National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS), the National Income Dynamics Study (NiDS), the national Electronic Tuberculosis (TB) Register (ETR.Net) and the Electronic Drug-resistant Tuberculosis Register (EDRWeb). The publication seeks to highlight inequities in health outcomes, healthresource allocation and delivery, and to track the efficiency of health processes across all provinces and districts.
Compilation of the DHB is guided by an advisory committee made up of managers from the National Department of Health (NDoH), as well as public health experts.
Timely publication of the DHB is inextricably linked to availability of the data sources from which it draws, and the launch of the DHB is intended to coincide with the NDoH annual planning cycle.