The efficiency of the health system in South Africa: Evidence from stochastic frontier analysis

The availability of increased resources and the lack of parallel improvement in health status have renewed interest on health system performance, particularly where progress towards the Millennium Development Goals has been slow. Since the political transition in 1994, South Africa has consistently invested over eight of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on health, but so far returns remain uneven, with some localities delivering lower outcomes than others, even when they have comparable input levels.