Analysis of factors influencing technical efficiency of public district hospitals in KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa.

"Declarations Ethics approval and consent to participateEthical clearance for the study was obtained from the University of KwaZulu-Natal (HSS/0805/017D) and KwaZulu-Natal provincial department of Health (HRKM301/17). As the study does not involve direct human participants, permission to access the provincial health database was sought from the provincial district manager as against the seeking participant’s consent. Consent for publicationNot applicable. Competing interestsThe authors declare no competing interests. Competing interests The authors declare no competing interests."

"Funding This study was supported by grant provided by the South African National Research Foundation through the NRF-TWAS African renaissance fellowship. Authors were independent in the design of the study, data collection, and analysis, interpretation of results, writing and publishing of the manuscript."