ArticleBMC family practice2018
The perceived impact of family physicians on the district health system in South Africa: a cross-sectional survey.
Article in BMC family practice, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers.
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Who cites it
21 citing papers in PubMed.
- Impact of COVID-19 on consumption patterns and healthcare expenditures in general dentistry and outpatient physician visits.BMC health services research · 2026Article
- Family physician deployment in South Africa's district health system: A cross-sectional study.South African family practice : official journal of the South African Academy of Family Practice/Primary Care · 2026Article
- Creating the evidence for family medicine advocacy in Africa.African journal of primary health care & family medicine · 2025Article
- Lessons learnt from advocating for family medicine in South Africa.African journal of primary health care & family medicine · 2025Article
- The landscape of family medicine in India - A cross-sectional survey study.PLOS global public health · 2025Article
- Editorial: Innovative educational methods for Family Medicine and Primary Care training.African journal of primary health care & family medicine · 2024Article
- The career pathways of new family physicians in South Africa from 2008 to 2022.South African family practice : official journal of the South African Academy of Family Practice/Primary Care · 2024Article
- Article
- Pioneering family physicians and the mechanisms for strengthening primary health care in India-A qualitative descriptive study.PLOS global public health · 2023Article
- Factors affecting family medicine programmes in Sub-Saharan Africa: a narrative review of recent literature.Ghana medical journal · 2022Review
- Knowledge, beliefs and intentions of African men in the Free State about prostate cancer screening.Health SA = SA Gesondheid · 2022Article
- The role played by family physicians in providing health services for the sheltered homeless populations during COVID-19 lockdown in the Tshwane district.African journal of primary health care & family medicine · 2021Article
- Strengthening African health systems through outreach and support and values-driven leadership.African journal of primary health care & family medicine · 2021Article
- Editorial: The contribution of family physicians to African health systems - A call for short reports.African journal of primary health care & family medicine · 2021Article
- Article
- Delivery of essential surgery by family physicians.Bulletin of the World Health Organization · 2020Article
- The attitude and perceptions of doctors at Letaba Hospital towards family medicine: A qualitative study.South African family practice : official journal of the South African Academy of Family Practice/Primary Care · 2020Article
- A scoping review on family medicine in sub-Saharan Africa: practice, positioning and impact in African health care systems.Human resources for health · 2020Article
- World Family Doctors Day 2019: Reflections from an African perspective.African journal of primary health care & family medicine · 2019Article
- Reflections on family medicine and primary healthcare in sub-Saharan Africa.BMJ global health · 2018Article
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundEvidence from first world contexts support the notion that strong primary health care teams contain family physicians (FPs). African leaders are looking for evidence from their own context. The roles and scope of practice of FPs are also contextually defined. The South African family medicine discipline has agreed on six roles. These roles were incorporated into a family physician impact assessment tool, previously validated in the Western Cape Province.
methodsA cross-sectional study design was used to assess the perceived impact of family physicians across seven South African provinces. All FPs working in the district health system (DHS) of these seven provinces were invited to participate. Sixteen respondents (including the FP) per enrolled FP were asked to complete the validated 360-degree assessment tool.
resultsA total number of 52 FPs enrolled for the survey (a response rate of 56.5%) with a total number of 542 respondents. The mean number of respondents per FP was 10.4 (SD = 3.9). The perceived impact made by FPs was high for five of the six roles. Co-workers rated their FP's impact across all six roles as higher, compared to the other doctors at the same facility. The perceived beneficial impact was experienced equally across the whole study setting, with no significant differences when comparing location (rural vs. metropolitan), facility type or training model (graduation before and ≥ 2011).
conclusionsThe findings support the need to increase the deployment of family physicians in the DHS and to increase the number being trained as per the national position paper.
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