As the government announces plans to issue tenders for the construction of e-health infrastructures and have all medical facilities in the country connected, it is reported that low human resource capacity in the health sector is occasioning under utilization of the country’s available electronic health facilities.
Director of the Tanzanian Training Center for International Health Prof Senga Pamba made the observation at an e-health workshop yesterday in Bagamoyo where he called for immediate intervention.
Organised by the Christian Social Services Commission (CSSC) in collaboration with Ifakara health institute, the workshop brought together e-health experts from across the country to share their e-health service experiences and its efficiency in increasing access to health services.
The general consensus, as expressed by Prof Pamba, is that: “Performance of e-health in the country is poor due to unawareness of the people in the health sector over the use of the advanced technological instruments.
“We need to adapt to technology advances,” he told the attendants at the workshop.
“We need to re-organize ourselves and make the best use of the system to improve service delivery,” he said.
Using Ifakara Health Institute as an example, he said patients’ and partners’ information can be safely stored electronically making retrieval much easier, faster and generally more efficient.
He said the system will among other things, overcome fragmentation and duplication of services in the sector and allow fluid flow of patient information from one medical facility to another and within the health ministry departments, a vital aspect when it comes to making referrals.
“This will reduce operational costs immensely by cutting down filing expenses, paper and other stationary costs,” he went on to explain pointing out that it is vital for the country to join the rest of the world and move towards becoming a green economy.
Reached for comments, Minister of Health and Social Welfare Dr Seif Rashid explained that Tanzania is still very much in the novice stage when it comes to e-health use.
However, he said the ministry is working systematically to make the transfer and at the moment they are embarking on the second phase of its implementation, forming e-health foundations and health servants’ training on the use of the system.
He explained that the e-health foundations will ensure set up of basic infrastructural building blocks required to enable electronic sharing of health information across the Tanzanian health sector.
The government is working to improve and expand the system to connect all hospitals and health institutions in the country to a single computerized system, he said.
According to the Minister, by the end of this month, a review of the current system will begin and come August this year, the report will be submitted to the government.
Once the operations report is submitted, the government will then advertise a tender for the construction of required e-health infrastructures. The national e-Health Strategy was launched in October of last year to enable the sector perform more efficient.
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Quelle/Source: IPPmedia, 09.05.2014
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