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7 October 2004

Distinguished Guests
Visitors from elsewhere on the African continent
Ladies and Gentlemen

Innovation has never been purely for the sake of itself, but rather for the role innovation might play in improving the way we deliver services. This philosophy as in integral part of what health informatics is all about and for this I salute you all tonight.

You have been welcomed to Kimberley by the Executive Mayor Patrick Lenyibi and greeted on behalf of the Northern Cape Department of Health by the Honourable MEC Molusi. It is now my chance to extend to you all a warm welcome to the Province of the Northern Cape.

I welcome all delegates, from South Africa and abroad and in particular those representing the national Department of Health, the South Africa Health Informatics Association, the South African Medical Research Council, the Computer Society of South Africa and all other professional bodies.

Our Province offers a chance to escape the maddening crowds and enjoy a unique beauty. We hope you will take a chance to travel in the Northern Cape for pleasure as well as work and experience first hand the diversity of our natural heritage.

The Northern Cape is an entirely appropriate province in which to host this year’s HISA conference. We know many of the challenges that the rest of South Africa experiences, yet we also face the challenge of vast distances.

This complicates all our efforts to provide health care services, stretching our health professionals over extraordinary distances to provide services. We recognise the potential for Informatics Innovations to improve our efficiencies and support performance excellence.

As South Africans a Peoples Contract unites us. This contract includes a responsibility to progressively improve access to quality healthcare.

The role of informatics in this process is critical, but there is not always consensus on how technological innovations should be used to move us forward.

The importance of events such as HISA and deliberations which you have all been part of cannot be over emphasised.

The people of our country rely on each one of you to participate fully to ensure that we grasp all opportunities and maximise the value we achieve.

On 26 July this year I launched the Anti-Retroviral Treatment programme in the Northern Cape and the Communicable Disease team has moved rapidly to advance access to the programme throughout the province. Because of the critical importance of monitoring the process, this programme has allowed us an opportunity to re-evaluate many of our health systems.

We are pleased to have access to strong information system partners. Nevertheless, we recognise that many questions require more attention:

We need to work harder to integrate disparate systems within the health sector. We need to take advantage of advanced decision support opportunities within our systems and we need to urgently address the challenge of inadequate bandwidth with a comprehensive network strategy that integrates the requirements of all government services, ensuring clearly defined minimum specifications for health care facilities.

These are but a few of the challenges before you at this HISA conference and your ability to propose innovative solutions will determine your success.

The theme for HISA 2004 is “Cost Effective Health Informatics Initiatives for Southern Africa”. Health informatics provides efficiencies where resources are limited and so I congratulate you on your choice of theme, but I will add one caveat.

The people of South Africa deserve quality health care services. Your challenge as health informatics professionals is to help to deliver these services; to ensure that Cost Effective translates not simply to cheaper services, but rather to better quality services for our investment and access to services where previously there were none.

I am aware that South Africa has put in a bid to host the prestigious 2010 MedInfo Informatics Congress. HISA 2004 is an important opportunity for you to consolidate the position of Southern Africa. I wish you success in MedInfo bid.

In conclusion I would like to remind you that Informatics in healthcare is not like any other area of Informatics. It has unique complexities. This is because there is a person at the centre of our health care service, for whom the service exists. This person is often unwell and frequently vulnerable.

I challenge you to remember this person in your deliberations that we may build an information society that is built by South Africans, to truly serve the needs of South Africans.

I thank you.

Issued by: Office of the Premier, Northern Cape Provincial Government
7 October 2004