Strategic purchasing research brief 7: Balancing act: balancing affordability, quality and access
Percept
March 2025
Shivani Ranchod, Anja Smith and Jodi Wishnia| December 2019
In this brief…
The prior briefs articulate the functions of the purchaser, and the requirements to realise a purchaser-provider split in South Africa. In this final brief we draw together the key themes and holistically consider the need to capacitate the Fund in terms of staff, systems, ongoing research and monitoring. We also consider what the critical issues are that the Fund will need to get right in order to ensure buy-in from its clients (the South African population) and from healthcare providers. The term purchaser-provider split signals a divide between the Fund and providers. Given that a healthcare system is largely driven by those at the coalface delivering care to clients, there is a strong need for provider support, mutual trust and ongoing collaborative effort.
