Background: Health policy-makers in Africa are looking for local solutions to strengthen primary care teams. A South African national position paper (2015) described six aspirational roles of family physicians (FPs) working within the district health system. However, the actual contributions of FPs are unclear at present, and evidence is required as to how this cadre may be able to strengthen health systems. Methods: Using semi-structured interviews, this study sought to obtain the views of South African district health managers regarding the impact made by FPs within their districts on health system performance, clinical processes and health outcomes. Results: A number of benefits of FPs to the health system in South Africa were confirmed, including: their ability to enhance the functionality of the local health system by increasing access to a more comprehensive and coordinated health service, and by improving clinical services delivered through clinical care, capacitating the local health team and facilitating clinical governance activities. Conclusions: District managers confirmed the importance of all six roles of the FP and expressed both direct and indirect ways in which FPs contribute to strengthening health systems' performance and clinical outcomes. FPs were seen as important clinical leaders within the district healthcare team. Managers recognised the need to support newly appointed FPs to clarify their roles within the healthcare team and to mature across all their roles. This study supports the employment of FPs at scale within the South African district health system according to the national position paper on family medicine.

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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.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12875-018-0710-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

PURPOSE Evidence of the influence of family physicians on health care is required to assist managers and policy makers with human resource planning in Africa. The international argument for family physicians derives mainly from research in high-income countries, so this study aimed to evaluate the influence of family physicians on the South African district health system. METHODSWe conducted a cross-sectional observational study in 7 South African provinces, comparing 15 district hospitals and 15 community health centers (primary care facilities) with family physicians and the same numbers without family physicians. Facilities with and without family physicians were matched on factors such as province, setting, and size.RESULTS Among district hospitals, those with family physicians generally scored better on indicators of health system performance and clinical processes, and they had significantly fewer modifiable factors associated with pediatric mortality (mean, 2.2 vs 4.7, P = .049). In contrast, among community health centers, those with family physicians generally scored more poorly on indicators of health system performance and clinical processes, with significantly poorer mean scores for continuity of care (2.79 vs 3.03; P = .03) and coordination of care (3.05 vs 3.51; P = .02).CONCLUSIONS In this study, having family physicians on staff was associated with better indicators of performance and processes in district hospitals but not in community health centers. The latter was surprising and is inconsistent with the global literature, suggesting that further research is needed on the influence of family physicians at the primary care level.

Central venous catheterization (CVC) entails the catheterization of the superior vena cava via either the subclavian or the internal jugular vein (IJV). This study looked at the frequency in which a needle was inserted into the IJV using the anterior CVC approach, which entails inserting the needle into the apex of Sedillot's triangle, formed by the sternal and clavicular heads of sternocleidomastoid (SCM). The ipsilateral distances from the apex of Sedillot's triangle to the superior aspect of the sternoclavicular joint and the diameter of the IJV were also measured. A needle was inserted into the apex of Sedillot's triangle in 36 adult cadavers with mean age of 62 +/- 19 years (mean +/- SD), mean height of 1.6 +/- 0.18 m, and a mean weight of 55 +/- 16 kg. Subsequent dissections of this area revealed the relation of the needle to the IJV. Results indicate that on the right, the needle was inserted into the IJV in 97.14% of the cases. On the left, the needle entered the IJV in 78.79% of the cases. From the sternoclavicular joint, the apex of Sedillot's triangle was found to be 40.87 +/- 1.62 mm and 38.73 +/- 6.34 mm on the right and left, respectively. The IJV diameter was 17.29 +/- 1.07 mm on the right and 15.30 +/- 0.25 mm on the left. We conclude that the anterior CVC approach is an anatomically accurate technique. It is furthermore important to realize that when performing any invasive procedure, a sound anatomical knowledge of the region is extremely important, as complications are often due to lack of understanding or misunderstanding of the relevant anatomy.