Challenges to KZN'S health patient system

BUDGET shortfall and internet connectivity are some of the challenges hampering progress in the Health Patient Registration System (HPRS) in KwaZulu-Natal.

- ZAINUL DAWOOD

With KZN having deep rural areas, the issue of connectivity to health services was making it difficult to implement the HPRS, said KZN Department of Health (DoH) MEC Nomagagu Simelane, when she addressed the Select Committee on Social Services at the National Council of Provinces yesterday.

The committee received briefings from Health departments in KZN, Mpumalanga, and the Northern Cape on the readiness to implement the HPRS.

Simelane said some clinics in rural areas were not able to implement the HRPS because they could not connect to the internet, adding that there was a strategy to deal with it.

The HPRS is an initiative to improve healthcare and data management as one of the National Health Insurance (NHI) imperatives.