The Ministry of Health and Social Services (MoHSS) has plans in place to modernise community healthcare through a new system that will improve patient referrals, strengthen data collection and replace paper-based record-keeping.
The MoHSS is hosting a National Digital Community System Training Workshop in Swakopmund to prepare health information systems officers for the phased rollout of the new platform.
Senior Health Programmes Officer Endelina Uushona says the Digital Community System will enable community health workers to record patient information electronically on a gadget while conducting household visits.
She says the system will improve communication between communities, clients and hospitals by ensuring patient information is shared more effectively, resulting in faster referral and better continuity of care.
Uushona says the platform will particularly benefit people living in remote communities by improving access to healthcare services and reducing the risk of lost patients' records.
She says the system will be rolled out in phases once consultations are complete, with both paper and digital systems operating side by side during the transition period.
"So the system is designed to work on an offline basis, so you will be able to enter data offline, and once there is a connection, it automatically updates to the server. When there is a connection, data can still be captured or collected, but we still have areas that have only 2G or 3G, and it still works when you go to the facility because the moment you have internet connectivity at most of the clinics, the community workers go house to house, but they always have time at the end of the week or at the end of the month; they go and do conclusions on data registries when they get a chance to connect."
The Senior Health Programmes Officer, Rose-Mary Sheehama, encouraged the nation to embrace the initiative.
"This workshop has been an eye-opener; we see that the world is moving towards digitalisation. The Ministry of Health is not new to this idea; it teaches a lot about data security, data privacy and, of course, the new policies and Universal Health Coverage (UHC). I think Namibia is on the right road in adopting this agenda."