Jozi clinics go digital
13 September 2015
Visits to the clinic in Johannesburg will no longer be characterised by long queues and tons of endless paperwork as access to healthcare has now taken the technological route.
Speaking at the launch of the inaugural eHealth Conference at the School of Public Health at the University of the Witwatersrand on Friday September 11, Johannesburg Executive Mayor Councillor Parks Tau said the health information system (HIS) digitisation pilot project, launched at the Slovoville and Green Village clinics in Soweto in September 2014, had made positive gains.
The two-day conference was jointly put together by the City and the Southern African Health Technology Assessment Society.
“Feedback from patients has been extremely positive,” Mayor Tau said. “Patients’ comments included the positive effects of the project and the much-improved and streamlined processes, as well as the quality of service.”
A result of the partnership between the City and Anglo-American, the digitisation and preservation project seeks to establish a single, complete body of patient records easily accessible to health practitioners in both the public and private healthcare sectors. Gauteng Department of Health Director Dr Ernest Kenoshi said all clinics and hospitals in the province would benefit from the R300-million investment in new health technology.
“The department is also strengthening the numbers of personnel responsible for maintaining health technology by an additional 50 trainee technicians to complement and assist the current 24 technicians,” said Dr Kenoshi.
He said the process to transfer patients’ records on to the eHealth platform would be complete within the next 18 to 24 months.
Mayor Tau said the City’s aim was to utilise technology to improve turnaround times, services, record keeping and overall patient experience. He said Johannesburg was fast moving towards being a truly Smart City, embracing the benefits of technology and exploring innovative ways to improve service delivery through smart systems.
“By creating a synergy between public and private sectors we can find solutions to healthcare challenges. We will look at solutions and outcomes and see how these can be taken forward and implemented,” Cllr Tau said.
“Using technology and being innovative will boost Johannesburg. As a City it will enable us to provide better services to all citizens,” he said.
Other Smart City initiatives being spearheaded by the City include the Jozi Digital Ambassador Programme – which takes digi-entrepreneurs into communities to improve digital literacy – the rollout of 1 000 Wi-Fi hotspots and the Massive Open Online Varsity courses made available at all City libraries.