A model for the integration of primary healthcare services in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

INTRODUCTION: In South Africa, Integration of Services Policy was enacted in 1996 with the aim of increasing health service utilization by increasing the accessibility of all services at primary healthcare level. However, the problem with the policy arises in the implementation of integrated primary healthcare as there is no agreed upon understanding of what this phenomenon means in the South African context. AIMS: Analyse integration of primary healthcare services and ultimately develop a model for the integration of primary healthcare services. RESULTS: It emerged that there were three core categories that were used by the participants as discriminatory dimensions of integrated primary healthcare in South Africa. These core categories were (a) comprehensive health care, (b) supermarket approach and (c) one stop shop. CONCLUSION: The phenomenon, integrated primary healthcare meant different things in different contexts.