Mayor Tau launches ehealth system for Jozi clinics

09 June 2016

 

In a move that will drastically reduce long queues at the City of Johannesburg’s primary healthcare facilities, Executive Mayor Cllr Parks Tau on Wednesday June 8 launched an e-health system at the new Jabavu Clinic in Soweto.

 

Addressing residents during the launch of the digital healthcare system, Mayor Tau said it was fitting that the site of the Soweto students’ uprising exactly 40 years ago this month had now turned into a platform for revolutionised healthcare service delivery.

Hundreds of Soweto students who marched from Naledi High School to Morris Isaacson High in Central Western Jabavu in protest against the use of Afrikaans as a medium of instruction in black schools would have passed the old Jabavu Clinic.

Piles of paper at the clinic have now been replaced by a multimillion-rand 21st century electronic patient processing system.

Mayor Tau said the introduction of the electronic system was in response to concerns raised by residents, who left their homes as early as 4am to be in front of the queue at the City's primary healthcare facilities.

“The City conducted a survey that found that people had an issue with spending the whole day stuck in a queue. We had to find a solution to ensure that people didn’t wake up at dawn to queue and that they got quality healthcare services,” said Mayor Tau.

He said healthcare professionals also used to spend more time doing paperwork and less time attending to “the real issues of the patients”.

Mayor Tau said for Johannesburg, being a smart city meant being able to meet the needs of the people.

“It’s about delivering services where they are needed the most and dealing with the issues that matters the most,” he said.

Mayor Tau said the new system meant Johannesburg residents had leapfrogged into the digital era.

“We as the City of Johannesburg are using technology to solve the problems that residents face. This system will keep records safe and minimise room for error and avoid unnecessary mistakes.”

Member of the Mayoral Committee for Health and Social Development Cllr Nonceba Molwele said the City was doing all that was necessary to improve the quality of services it provided. Seventy-two-year-old grandmother Betty Dladla was one of the patients who met the new development with relief.

“I’m so happy because I heard that I will no longer have to queue for very long to get my medication,” said Dladla, who regularly visits the clinic for her hypertension medication.

The system will be rolled out to the rest of public clinics in Johannesburg in due course.