NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
FOR WRITTEN REPLY
QUESTION NO. 15
DATE OF PUBLICATION IN INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER: 14 FEBRUARY 2013
(INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER NO. 1)
Mrs P C Duncan (DA) to ask the Minister of Health:
Whether, with regard to his reply to question 953 on 3 September 2012, any
quality improvement plans based on the District Health Information System
(DHIS) data have been (a) developed and (b) implemented; if not, why not;
if so, (i) how many, in each case, (ii) how effective are they, (iii) to
which districts did they pertain and (iv) what improvements were listed in
each plan?
NW17E
REPLY:
a) and (b) Yes, Data Quality Improvement Plans have been
developed and implemented.
i) Ten (10) Data Quality Improvement Plans. One (1) produced by the
National Department of Health and nine (9) developed by Provincial
Departments of Health;
ii) Very effective. The preliminary audit of Performance Information
conducted by the Auditor-General South Africa (AGSA) in February 2013,
found that data quality in health facilities that were first audited
in 2011/12, and audited in 2012/13, reflected great improvement. Key
challenges still exists, especially where the manual (paper-based)
data collection systems are still being used;
iii) The Plans pertain to all districts across the nine Provincial
Departments of Health;
iv) Improvements listed in the Data Quality Improvement Plans include:
a) Enhancing implementation of the District Health Management
Information System (DHMIS) policy at all levels of the health
care system, to improve data management and data quality;
b) Printing and dissemination of Standard Operating Procedures
(SOPs) for the DHMIS Policy, to provide systematic guidance to
health care providers and health information management
personnel at facility level. This has been achieved;
c) Development of a new National Indicator Data Set (NIDS) FOR
2013/14-2014/15, with a smaller set of indicators. This has been
achieved;
d) Rationalisation of the number of registers used in Primary
Health Care (PHC) facilities;
e) All new registers produced by the National Department of Health
and Provincial Departments of Health will as from 2013 onwards
be pre-numbered. Existing registers will be numbered manually;
f) All new registers produced by the National Department of Health
and Provincial Departments of Health from 2013 onwards will
provide space for the signature of the completer and the
reviewer. Existing registers will be signed at the end of each
page;
g) An additional 550 data capturers have been employed, which
increased the total number to 1Â 764. A need exists for
additional 3Â 061 data capturers to be appointed.
The policy and procedure-related interventions implemented to improve data
quality are sustainable. Enhanced sustainability requires appointment of
additional data capturers, provision of appropriate ICT infrastructure and
improved connectivity (bandwidth) in all 3Â 880 public health facilities
END.