The Story of Integration in the Brakpan District

In order for South African health services to be transformed and restructured in line with the district health system, it is necessary to integrate previously fragmented services. This fragmentation has led to confusion for patients and has been wasteful of scarce resources.In some districts, such as Brakpan, functional integration has occurred. Here staff from fragmented services and different authorities started working together harmoniously long before formal integration commenced. The story of how the Brakpan health services accomplished this integration of staff serves as an important example for other districts of how to overcome fragmentation and power struggles.