DURBAN - THE KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health says it is making inroads with its plan to do away with an outdated, paper-based record management system in hospitals and clinics across the province and to introduce a digital e-Health system.
The department said its plan was on track for this digital transformation despite a few administrative and IT system hurdles.
It said the system was being rolled out, and training of staff was ongoing.
“From the beginning on 2023 onwards, we will be adding a further 20 hospitals to this list. We have already trained 543 nurses and 183 doctors at Prince Mshiyeni Memorial Hospital, as well as 258 nurses and 32 doctors at Madadeni Hospital,” said KZN Health MEC Nomagugu Simelane during the department’s 2022 budget vote speech.
Simelane said that if the e-Health system was up and running in all health facilities across the province, it would preserve vital patient information, as some patient files had been damaged in the recent floods.
The 22 hospitals that have started implementing the e-Health system are Prince Mshiyeni Memorial Hospital, Dr Pixley Ka Isaka Seme Memorial Hospital, Madadeni, Ngwelezane, Addington, King Dinuzulu Hospital, Northdale, Mariannhill, McCords, King Edward, St Aidan’s Hospital, General Justice Gizenga Memorial Hospital, Newcastle, Edendale, Dundee, Bethesda, Vryheid, Port Shepstone, EG & Usher, Queen Nandi, Grey’s and Emmaus.
She added that the department was pleased with the recent announcement by Health Minister Dr Joe Phaahla that the national Department of Health would assist in the roll-out of the system.
“Ultimately, we want all our healthcare facilities to be interlinked under one universal digital health system so that they are able to ‘talk’ to one another, as it were,” she said.
She added that the new e-Health system would ultimately reduce patient waiting times and address the challenge of missing and damaged patient files. It would also enable the department to defend itself effectively against medico-legal claims.
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