In this episode we discuss how data can be used to improve efficiency, how to bridge the gap between upstairs management and downstairs provision, and then we discuss the NHI and how it will change Emergency Care provision in South Africa.

Accronyms:

NHI - National Health Insurance

NHLS - National Health Laboratory Service

HIS - Health information system

ICT - Information and Communication Technology

PMI - Patient Master Index

NHI Links: https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2024-05-21-nhi-there-are-constructive-and-contentious-aspects/

https://www.health.gov.za/nhi/

https://www.health.gov.za/nhi-faq/

Dr Tshegofatso Maimela is a Public Health and Preventative Medicine Physician with over a decade of public health medicine experience and 17 years of clinical practice across both public and private sectors. She has a deep passion for patient-focused health care solutions for individuals, families, organizations, and communities and she leads the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital’s monitoring and evaluation directorate together with its information management unit (IMU), providing data products to measure and monitor health service delivery outcomes and service efficiencies for data informed decision-making within the institution. Dr Maimela additional functions as a joint appointment staff within the WITS university’s School of Public Health, Department of Community Health teaching both under graduates and post graduates in the discipline of Public Health Medicine.

Dr Maimela provides strategic and operational coordination for NHI readiness and is responsible for the communication and implementation support of clinical and administrative programs in 14 referring facilities in the academic health complex. She serves on the Health Systems Strengthening Committee of the Health Systems Trust as an external Public Health Physician Expert in the organisation’s programmatic implementation function.

Dr Maimela is a cofounder of Praxis Public Health, a strategic and implementation thought partner for health practitioners, group practices, hospital groups, medical aid providers, health societies, businesses, national health program funders and ministries of health on health systems strengthening strategies, goals and translational activities in both the local and global context. She may be contacted at publicpraxishealth@gmail.com, or visit her website www.praxispublichealth.com