Page 11 - DPSA - Service Delivery Report

Health to tackle staff shortage
NEWS IN BRIEF
Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize says the department will deal with staff shortages for frontline services in the year ahead.
The Minister led a debate on the de- partment’s budget vote in mid-July this year.
“The shortage of frontline service de- livery staff needs to be eliminated once and for all. We have identified the shortage of staff, which requires urgent attention. Of the 4 143 required medi- cal officer positions, we will fill 2 680 in this financial year,” Minister Mkhize said.
This intervention, said the Minister, should be implemented simultane- ously with the preliminary steps to in- troduce the National Health Insurance (NHI).
Some of the nurse, allied health pro- fessions and community health worker positions will also be filled within the same period.
“We are undertaking to absorb all the qualifying 2 625 medical interns, and 6 786 community service health professionals, including an anticipat- ed 700 additional graduates from the Nelson Mandela Fidel Castro collabo- ration programme on training medical students in Cuba.
“The joint team of National Department of Health and National Treasury have met to reprioritise the budget and iden- tify vacant posts to be converted into professional service delivery posts,” Minister Mkhize said.
Implementation of the NHI
After Cabinet approved the NHI Bill for tabling in Parliament for public con-
sultation, the structure of the National Department of Health will be reorgan- ised to support the implementation of the NHI.
“The NHI Implementation Unit will be established while the legislative pro- cesses are underway.
“This unit will form the embryo of the National Health Insurance Fund. Ca- pacity building for staff that will be in this unit will be undertaken,” said the Minister.
In the implementation of the NHI, the department has developed the Health Patient Registration System.
The system will be the backbone of an electronic health patient record.
“We have already registered 42.6 mil- lion users on the system and all South Africans will be registered by the end of this financial year.
“We support the Department of Home Affairs in the registration of babies in our hospitals, as they will then be reg- istered automatically on the NHI pa- tient register.
“NHI will require a digital health plat- form that will support the operations of the NHI Fund and work has already commenced in this regard,” said Minis- ter Mkhize.
The department has identified over 30 managers at various levels of the health system, who will receive training within the next four weeks – supported by international development partners. These managers will learn how NHI is implemented from different parts of the world to ensure sustainability of imple- mentation.
Regarding Mobile app to monitor drug stock-outs Mkhize announced the de- velopment of a mobile app linked to a call centre that will allow instant report- ing by patients or civil society when- ever vital medication is unavailable at clinics and hospitals.
“This information will enable authorities at provincial and national level to im- mediately intervene,” he said.
He said where there are global short- ages of medicines, the department will work tirelessly to timeously identify al- ternative global suppliers or therapeu- tic alternatives.
“We are also exploring procurement of available software for prescription and delivery of medication to centres clos- est to patients.
“Patients would not need to go to hospitals for the sole purpose of col- lecting medicines. We will partner with non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to take advantage of IT sys- tems that have already been piloted in the country.
“In this way, we want to ensure that the entire health system can guaran- tee security of supply of medicine and timely delivery of chronic medication in areas including townships, informal settlements and rural areas, as has already been demonstrated in Alex- ander, Diepsloot, Bara and Ndofaya malls,” he said.
– SAnews.gov.za
Friday, July 12, 2019
Volume 12 No.3 of 2019 | SERVICE DELIVERY REVIEW 9