The document summarizes a webinar about South Africa's Ideal Clinics Initiative to improve quality of primary healthcare. It discusses how South Africa is working to expand access to affordable, timely, effective and patient-centered care through the Ideal Clinic program. The program defines standards for infrastructure, staffing, supplies and clinical care processes that primary clinics aim to meet. It also collaborates with other organizations to address social health determinants. The webinar objectives are to share lessons from implementing and expanding the Ideal Clinics Initiative in South Africa, review evidence on improving primary care quality in resource-limited settings, and discuss future challenges in Africa.

1. Driving Quality Health Care:
Lessons from the Ideal Clinics Initiative
in South Africa
9:00AM - 10:30AM (EST) | 4:00PM - 5:30PM (SAST)
Wednesday, February 27, 2018
ONLINE WEBINAR
Background
Universal health coverage (UHC) is now a central goal to sustainable development, agreed by all
countries around the world. But access to care is not enough. Patients who access the health system
should expect care that is affordable, timely, effective and patient-centered. Providing this level of
quality in primary health care is a key requirement for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.
Despite the many challenges in its health care system, South Africa is committed to achieving quality
UHC. It has a long history of innovation to get over its many challenges, including its huge burden of
HIV / AIDS and the major longstanding inequities in access to quality healthcare. It is now focusing
attention on improving the quality of care at its network of primary care clinics.
Ideal Clinics
In 2013, the government of South Africa, realizing that specific challenges in the service delivery
environment are tenacious, form barriers to quality services and are a major impediment to achieving
UHC, embarked on a new national initiative to expand the quality of primary health care services. The
initiative involved a new design for delivering quality care in primary care settings and later
developed into the ‘Ideal Clinic Realization and Maintenance Programme’.
An Ideal Clinic is defined as a clinic with good infrastructure, adequate staff, adequate medicine and
supplies, good administrative processes, good governance, and sufficient adequate bulk supplies. It
uses applicable clinical policies, protocols and guidelines, and it harnesses partner and stakeholder
support. An Ideal Clinic also collaborates with other government departments, the private sector and
non-governmental organizations to address the social determinants of health. Integrated Clinical
Services Management will be a key focus within an Ideal Clinic. The purpose of Integrated Clinical
Services Management is to provide patient-centered care that responds to the growing burden of
comorbidities in relation to both communicable and non-communicable chronic diseases in South
Africa, in an affordable, timely, effective manner.
Institute for Health Care Improvement
The Institute for Health Care Improvement (IHI) works with health systems, countries, and other
organizations to improve the quality, safety, and value in health care. It applies a systematic method -
the science of improvement - to rapidly test and spread learning about what changes, in which
contexts, to produce improvements. It combines expert subject knowledge with improvement
methods and tools to achieve breakthrough results in a variety of settings, from communities to
primary care clinics to hospitals. It is multidisciplinary — drawing on clinical science, systems theory,
psychology, statistics, and other fields. In February 2018, IHI brings its experience and expertise to
Durban, South Africa — the first ever Africa Forum on Quality and Safety in Healthcare.

2. Driving Quality Health Care:
Lessons from the Ideal Clinics Initiative
in South Africa
9:00AM - 10:30AM (EST) | 4:00PM - 5:30PM (SAST)
Wednesday, February 27, 2018
ONLINE WEBINAR
Objectives
This webinar aims to share the lessons from South Africa’s Ideal Clinic initiative, and the key
messages from the recent Africa Forum. The objectives are:
Agenda
Share lessons from South Africa on setting up and expanding quality primary health care services
through the Ideal Clinic Initiative;
Review the latest international evidence on what works for sustained improvements in quality
PHC in resource constrained environments;
Discuss future challenges and approaches to expanding and sustaining quality primary health care
services in low and middle income settings of Africa
9:00 am - 9:15 am | Welcome & Introduction
Bob Fryatt, Director, Health Finance and Governance (HFG) Project
9:15 am - 9:45 am | The Ideal Clinic: What it is, what it has achieved, and future challenges
Jeanette Hunter, Deputy Director General
Primary Health Care at the National Department of Health (NDoH) of South Africa
10:15 - 10:30 am | Lessons from South Africa: UHC & quality primary health care
Jeanette Hunter, NDOH SA
Pierre Barker, IHI
Shaidah Asmall, NDOH, SA (chair)
Sodzi Sodzi-Tettey, Head of Africa IHI
9:45 am - 10:15 am | Achieving Quality of Care: key messages from Africa Forum on
Quality & Safety in Healthcare
Pierre Barker, Chief Global Partnerships and Programs Officer
Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI)
10:30 am - Closing Remarks
Bob Fryatt, Director, Health Finance and Governance (HFG) Project