Access to the Internet in South Africa must expand significantly before the Department of Health can establish its Digital Health Platform as part of the National Health Insurance (NHI) plan.
However, the department has been quiet about making the platform a reality. MyBroadband asked the Department of Health about the project’s scope and associated costs, but it hadn’t responded to our query by publication.
President Cyril Ramaphosa signed the NHI bill into law on Wednesday, 15 May 2024, kicking the controversial plan into action.
However, the National Digital Health Strategy document for 2019 to 2024 noted that Internet connectivity is a prerequisite for the Digital Health Platform and other social development initiatives.
“Connectivity will therefore be addressed as a national imperative, with a definitive, sustainable solution, at scale, across the entire government,” it says.
“Adequate bandwidth provides opportunities for sharing connectivity with employees and clients, via free Wi-Fi and other methods, which will be transformative and support citizens to embrace the opportunities of the fourth industrial revolution.”
To achieve this, South Africa must build a health network to provide digital health broadband connectivity in partnership with other specific government departments.
It will also need to establish a cloud service for health and conduct various assessments to evaluate the availability of infrastructure, its functionality, location, and connectivity.
The NHI plan aims to “provide universal access to quality health care for all South Africans,” which involves creating the Digital Health Platform through which medical professionals can access records.
“This platform will include the creation of reusable frameworks and artefacts that promote success,” the health department said.
The Digital Health Platform aims to achieve the following:
- Quality and uninterrupted healthcare;
- Adherence to best practices and clinical guidelines;
- Efficient and affordable health services and commodities;
- Health-financing models and processes;
- Better regulation, oversight, and patient safety; and,
- Health policy-making and resource allocation based on high-quality data.
The health department also plans to develop a complete electronic health record to support patient management and digitising health systems.
It said this will include digitising various health systems to bolster efficiency and quality at an institutional level.
South Africa must also create an integrated platform and architecture for the health sector information system. This will ensure the interoperability and linking of existing patient information databases.
The department highlighted various risks associated with establishing a Digital Health Platform. It said risk management is critical to its successful implementation.
It identified cybersecurity threats, resistance to change, and insufficient funding to procure digital health solutions as potential risks to the project.
The department intends to develop a cybersecurity policy to assess and mitigate cybersecurity threats effectively.
It said it is going after buy-in from critical stakeholders to address the risk of resistance to change, and it will engage with the National Treasury to address funding challenges.