Page 7 - DPSA_SDR Vol 12 No.2 2019

NEWS IN BRIEF

signed off the completed project was in of multiple stand-alone data centres, infrastructure and toolsets, and agile
October 2018. client-specific server infrastructure, systems.
upfront capacity expenditure to cater for
The DHET is a 100% cloud customer peaks and growth, and keeping up with The Sita-government cloud journey will
– showing the DHET and Sita’s the proliferation of technologies. also translate into increased security,
commitment towards modernising the productivity, efficiency and service
government’s information technology This cloud platform – in conjunction delivery, as well as high availability
space for improved service delivery. with new data centres and broadband across devices and at any time. n
Sita began building its government – is a key tool for the government’s
private cloud ecosystem in 2014, and trajectory from planning to meaningful IT News Africa
has capacitated in-house cloud sites implementation.
in KwaZulu-Natal, the Free State, the
Western Cape and Gauteng. As more government departments
start using the new cloud platform, it is
The agency believes the decision to expected that staff and citizens will see
move to the cloud fixes many existing a tangible improvement in government
infrastructure challenges, including service delivery, capability and service,
addressing the cost and inefficiency built on a foundation of modern

Minister Dlodlo prescribes e-filing for KZN hospital

After her walkabouts at Prince Mshiyeni
Memorial Hospital in KwaZulu-Natal
as part of the Stakeholder Imbizo held
in mid-January 2019, the Minister for
the Public Service and Administration,
Ms Ayanda Dlodlo, recommended
the hospital adopt an electronic filing
system as a solution to the hospital’s
disarrayed manual filing.
Prince Mshiyeni Memorial Hospital is
located within the Umlazi township,
which is a densely populated area
south of Durban. The hospital serves
a catchment area that consists of
township, rural, hostel and informal
settlement communities.

Although Minister Dlodlo was satisfied
with the level of service that the hospital
offered, she was not particularly
pleased that the manual filing system of
Prince Mshiyeni Memorial Hospital had
a knock-on effect on the waiting times
of patients. This led Minister Dlodlo to
propose that the hospital management
explore the possibility of migrating to
an electronic filing system, which would
make access to patient files easier and
quicker.
“The beauty of an electronic filing
system is that, since your documents
are indexed, file retrieval becomes
instantaneous,” the minister said. Going
electronic would not only cut red tape,
but would also drastically reduce the
amount of paper that is used and
wasted, according to the minster.

“Taking your traditionally paper-based reduced lag time, better productivity longer [a] need for paper, ink [and] filing
processes to the digital world means and ultimately, lower costs. There is no cabinets, ”Minister Dlodlo concluded. n

Volume 12 No.2 of 2019 | SERVICE DELIVERY REVIEW 5