Question NW2947 to the Minister of Home Affairs
11 December 2020 - NW2947
Roos, Mr AC to ask the Minister of Home Affairs
With reference to his statement on 10 July 2019 that only 391 of 1445 health facilities handling births have Home Affairs officials and his commitment that the specified officials will be available at all 1445 health facilities (details furnished), what (a) total number of additional health facilities now have Home Affairs offices since July 2019 and (b) is the plan to cover all health facilities by the end of the current five-year term in 2024?
Reply:
(a – b) Follow-up to my Budget Vote statement on 10 July 2019, the Department of Home Affairs embarked on a large-scale project to roll-out online birth registration system in all 1445 health facilities. The project roll-out plan was adopted as outlined below:
|
Milestones |
Estimated Completion Timeframe |
|
Optimisation of 41 Priority 1 health facilities |
2019/20 Financial year |
|
Optimisation of 210 Priority 2&3 health facilities |
2021/22 Financial year |
|
Optimisation of 127 Priority 4 & 5 health facilities |
2022/23 Financial year |
|
Roll-out of birth registration system in 1067 new Priority 4 & 5 health facilities |
2023/24 Financial year |
The activities of the project involve optimisation of existing health facilities with DHA presence with the aim of enhancing network connectivity and space. The project commenced with the optimisaiton of 47 priority 1 (high actual births delivered) health facilities which were completed during 2019/2020 financial year. The next stage is the roll-out of 210 priority 2 and priority 3 health facilities which will be completed by the end of 2021/22 financial year. Due to COVID-19 regulations, the department could not implement the second stage of the project this financial year and had to roll the stage over to the next financial year. The third stage involves rolling out of online birth registration in 127 priority 4 and 5 health facilities and 1067 priority 5 health facilities will be completed in 2024/25 financial year.
The Department of Home Affairs depended heavily on network connectivity for the registration of birth and this project incorporated provision of uninterruptable network in all 1445 health facilities. The department has provided uninterruptable network, in a form of a router and UPS, in 160 health facilities and is in the process of procuring the services of the service provider to provide network in the remaining 1285 health facilities by the end of 2024/25 financial year. The process of connecting the 1285 health facilities has been with SITA to publish the Bid for the connection. The Business case for the Specification for the Health facilities has already been sent to SITA for the Publication of the Bid.
END