The MEC for Health and Wellness addresses summit attendees on the importance of reconfiguring primary healthcare services to meet growing demand and improve access to quality care in Gauteng. Picture: Jacques Naude / Independent Newspaper
The Gauteng Department of Health recently held a two-day District Health System (DHS) strategy and service delivery model reconfiguration summit on July 16-17. This summit aimed to improve access to primary healthcare services and ensure their optimisation at both primary and district levels, aligning with the objective of achieving universal health care coverage.
The summit, attended by representatives from the World Health Organisation, senior managers from the health department and other provincial departments, focused on consulting various experts on how to reconfigure service delivery models to better address the health needs of communities.
MEC for Health and Wellness, Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko, highlighted the increasing demands on healthcare services due to the rising burden of disease and emerging communicable diseases.
She emphasised the need for a strategic review of the service packages and norms for health services delivery at all levels of care.
“As the pressure on beds at higher levels of care explodes, there is a clogging of the system, forcing lower levels of care to begin to take more responsibility for services outside their scope and package of services,” MEC Nkomo-Ralehoko said.
“The most immediate and often seen as a low hanging fruit is to pump more resources to higher levels of care that manage the manifestations of a sick populace rather than deal with the problem by pumping resources into the course of the sickness by increasing investment in health promotion and disease prevention programmes.”
The MEC called for a rethinking of care models and the promotion of health through digitally driven primary health care services. "Opportunities therefore abound for us to rethink our models of care and promote health through provision of digitally driven primary health care services, maximising the utilisation of our foot soldiers and mobile facilities that provide care closer to the people. Let us not waste a crisis! Now is the time to reconfigure our service model in this time of digital explosion."
The summit also resolved to introduce digital innovations such as telemedicine and platforms like Hello Doctor, along with digitally enhanced mobile facilities to bring healthcare closer to the community.
MEC Nkomo-Ralehoko urged stakeholders to reflect on DHS performance and its failures, and to develop strategies that will help establish and sustain a healthy nation.
“Programmes that happen at community level can never be a one Department intervention, it requires partnerships and collective efforts, especially from those in the social cluster,” she said.
The session concluded with a roadmap towards efficient and effective healthcare delivery by 2029, focusing on innovative service models and lessons learned from past experiences.
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