Endurance, resistance and resilience in the South African health care system: case studies to demonstrate mechanisms of coping within a constrained system

BackgroundSouth Africa is at present undertaking a series of reforms to transform public health services to make them more effective and responsive to patient and provider needs. A key focus of these reforms is primary care and its overburdened, somewhat dysfunctional and hierarchical nature. This comparative case study examines how patients and providers respond in this system and cope with its systemic demands through mechanisms of endurance, …