The South African government has advanced plans to deploy appropriate technologies to boost its health care system.
South African Minister of Health, Dr. Aaron Motsoaledi made
this disclosure recently at the launch of Human Resource for Health Strategy in
Wits University.
He also said that the health system must provide safe
facilities which have the appropriate technology and materials for health
workers to discharge their duties diligently.
“We have embarked on strategies to ensure that all these
factors are addressed,” he said. According to him, there is a coordinated
health facility planning that has developed revitalisation plans for hospitals
and nursing colleges.
To this end, he said, some advisory committee has been put
in place which produced an essential technology list.
This, he said, is a list of minimum equipment each facility
must have to deliver quality and safe health care.
“An audit of more than 4000 facilities is currently
underway, this audit assesses among others; human resources, facility
management, supply and logistics, etc. We will be setting up teams to work
closely with the facilities to develop quality improvement and health system
strengthening plans for each facility,” he said.
The South African government, he said, believes this would
result in well-equipped and better staffed facilities that will enable health
workers to focus on what they know best, that is, delivering quality health
care in facilities they are proud to be part of.
So far, he said, his office has presented a wide ranging
interventions to address human resource challenges.
This, he said, involve a process of systematic planning
integrating facility improvement, working with private providers, increasing
the number of student intake, refurbishing institutions and constructing new
faculties as part of our response to the Human Resource shortages we face.
Further, he said, the previous sections have addressed the
push and pull factors within the HR system and have addressed individual and
systematic issues.
One of the weaknesses at organisational level is the
management skill at facility and district level. Studies have demonstrated that
it is not only financial incentives that make them leave but sometimes how they
are managed or “mismanaged”. The public health sector has to ensure that
environment in which health workers operate is conducive.
Remmy Nweke
ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D
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