Estimating a cost-effectiveness threshold for health care decision-making in South Africa
Cost-effectiveness thresholds are important decision rules that determine whether health interventions represent good value for money. This study provides useful insight into the magnitude of the health opportunity cost of health spending in South Africa
Ijeoma P Edoka and Nicholas K Stacey
November 2019
Clinical Quality Standards in South Africa
Proposed development framework - DRAFT
Prepared by Maryke Wilkinson on behalf of PRICELESS SA (School of Public Health, University of Witwatersrand)
November 2017
South African Clinical Practice Guidelines: a landscape analysis
The white paper National Health Insurance (NHI) Policy for South Africa (June 2017) stated that clinical guidelines (based on the best available clinical and cost-effectiveness evidence) will be used to guide the delivery of health services under NHI.
This clinical guideline landscape analysis aimed to collate all publicly available clinical guidelines on the provision of health care in South Africa, and the developers/commissioners of such guidance. In total, 285 clinical guidelines published online after the year 2000 were found. This work is currently under review for journal publication.
The contributions of the authors were funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (through iDSI), and the Flagships Awards Project by the South African Medical Research Council.
The Inquiry on Fiscal Policies for Health
The Inquiry on Fiscal Policies for Health is an exploratory consultative research endeavour to explore the potential uses of fiscal policy tools to address and prevent disease in South Africa. The Inquiry was structured around a research secretariat housed at PRICELESS SA at the University of the Witwatersrand School of Public Health, and an advisory panel. The panel, chaired by Kate O’Regan and Leila Patel, consisted of experts drawn from South Africa’s public sector, private sector and academia.
Through a series of meetings in 2015 and 2016, deliberation took place between the expert panel and secretariat, first to identify criteria upon which to interrogate potential fiscal instruments, and, second, to identify which fiscal instruments to consider. A parallel process took place simultaneously in India, led by the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy and the Public Health Foundation of India.
This report documents the findings of the Inquiry on Fiscal Policies for Health. We find preliminary evidence that fiscal measures – including taxes and subsidies – can improve health in the short term without relying either on additional budgetary allocations to Ministries of Health or on public health systems to work more efficiently as well as raise revenue. These fiscal measures could thus help to reduce inequalities in health and contribute to progress towards meeting numerous Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets.
