Abstract
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to measure the technical and scale efficiency of health centres to evaluate changes in productivity and to highlight possible policy implications of the results for policy makers. Designmethodologyapproach Data envelopment analysis DEA is employed to assess the technical and scale efficiency, and productivity change over a fouryear period among 17 public health centres. Findings During the period of study, the results suggest that the public health centres in Seychelles have exhibited mean overall or technical efficiency of above 93 per cent. It was also found that the overall productivity increased by 2.4 per cent over 20012004. Research limitationsimplications Further research can be undertaken to gather data on the prices of the various inputs to facilitate an estimation of the allocative efficiency of clinics. If such an exercise were to be undertaken, researchers may also consider collecting data on quantities and prices of paramedical, administrative and support staff to ensure that the analysis is more comprehensive than the study reported in this paper. Institutionalization of efficiency monitoring would help to enhance further the already good health sector stewardship and governance. Originalityvalue This paper provides new empirical evidence on a fouryear trend in the efficiency and productivity of health centres in Seychelles.