Nurses from across the City are bursting with nervousness and excitement over their big move from paper-based filing and record keeping to using laptops for ease of access to records, patient data storage and appointments. The City’s Department of Health and Social Development is accelerating the quality of primary healthcare services by rolling out of the new e-Health programme with the distribution of laptops to nurses across city’s clinics.
The programme, which is a major technological advancement, will allow residents to visit clinics within or even outside their communal areas. Staff in any given facility will have access to a patient’s health records.
Tubake Molatudi (40) who is a nurse at Jeppe Clinic, says that her excitement for the new e-Health programme is uncontainable. “I have been working at the clinic since 2019 and the handing out of laptops couldn’t have come at a better time. It will definitely ease the workload in terms of data capturing,” she says.
Molatudi says there are new skills nurse throughout the city will acquire but they also need to still use a pen and paper for quick notes.
Nurse Vivian Ngxita (60) at the Zandspruit Clinic is over the moon about using laptops in her profession. “I am feeling good about the new additions. I am excited to learn a new skill and become familiar with the advancement of technology,” she says.
Ngxita says she has been with the City since 2007 and the e-Health programme is a major turnaround in the health space. “We will be able to pay more attention to the care we give our patients and not be worried about loss of records. As individuals we see more than 50 patients a day so not having to write will save us a lot of time,” she adds.
Nurse Geneveva Ralintja (27) is enthusiastic about the new e-Health programme.
“I have been waiting for the City to go green and become a more paperless organisation.
The new laptops are a great starting point in the health department,” she says.
Ralintja says the new laptops will be more beneficial to patients than nurses.
She says records will be safer, more manageable and health workers will be able to work at better pace.
Written by Sascha-Lee Joseph
16/10/2023