DELIVERING AT THE RIGHT PRICE - THE COSTS OF PRIMARY MATERNITY CARE AT THE DIEPKLOOF-COMMUNITY-HEALTH-CENTER, SOWETO

This paper reports on a study of the costs of primary maternity care s ervices at the Diepkloof Community Health Centre (DK) in Soweto. DK, t he Soweto community health centre system as a whole and numerous other non-hospital settings provide a wide range of maternal health service s to substantial numbers of women, and relieve hospitals of a major po tential clinical burden. However, no research has been done in South A frica on the relative costs of the provision of these services in diff erent settings and by different types of health worker. The cost struc ture of these services at DK is presented and the costs of antenatal c are, deliveries in midwife-run labour wards, postnatal care (at the he alth centre and at home) and family planning services detailed. Some c omparisons are made with existing data for another community health ce ntre and with Baragwanath Hospital. These results are relevant to poli cy and planning of maternal health services. They are also shown to be of relevance to management and several areas of potential improvement of these services are noted.