Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is the integral part of this system and Imvelo GIS Technology and GIMS have been the GIS service providers to the corporation.

Project rollout

Some of the objectives are to establish and implement a GIS, to be used as a management and decision making tool, to senior officials at the Department of Health and ultimately filter down the technology. Achieving that goal means that there has to be a series of training programmes, which GIMS undertook as it has ESRI (Environmental Systems Research Institute) accredited trainers. The training was focused to highlight the usages of GIS in the health sector and how it could be effectively utilised.

Prior to the training programme, a technical study was undertaken by Imvelo GIS technology to ascertain probable areas where GIS could be used. They also did a lot of work in getting the data digital. Their main task was to establish locations of clinics and hospitals within Gauteng, which were put in a database. The next step was to buffer the catchment areas for the clinics and hospitals to ascertain service delivery efficiency and how many people each health centre and facility can accommodate.

This was done by buffering the clinics with a 5 km radius. The polygon buffer was then used to clip out the demographics found within, and an analysis study based on the number of people within each catchment area. The census data was used to find the probable number of the demographics per household. This could probably be used to find out whether the health facility is sufficient to cater for the needs of its immediate community and also find out whether the clinic or hospital is in an ideal location, both in terms of proximity analysis and magnitude to handle and cater for all in need of medical care.

Presidential visit

The Italian President, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi visited the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital to acknowledge the work done by the partnership. On his arrival a satellite link was established to the Italian Co-operation main office in Italy via videophone, so that they could also see what the Co-operation is doing in South Africa. The President was accompanied by, Dr M.E. Tshabalala-Msimang, the South African Minister of health.

GIMS

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