At the district level, district hospitals head the infrastructure, and are followed by health posts and then community level health systems. Thus there are often times when such workers are inactive, depending on their financial situation. They are capable of providing a basic level of care, focussing more on preventative measures. The country is divided into 7 districts, as part of the Health for All Programme, and in an attempt to introduce primary health care. There are two branches of the central hospital and 4 district hospitals covering the country then various health centres and posts.
Resources vary, most people live within reach of some form of health centre.
Human ResourcesDevelopment Immediately after independence the majority of the qualified personnel, mainly Portuguese, left the country. Since then a concerted effort has been made to train doctors and medical staff from within the country. By 1998 there were 60 doctors practising of whom 47 were Santomeans. There remain shortcomings in health management, and the distribution of the human resources is weighted towards hospitals, and even then heavily weighted to the branches of the Central Hospital. A problem that remains is the level of wages.