The Eden District Municipality’s (Eden DM) Municipal Health Services Section will be launching a mobile application on Wednesday, 29 June 2016, at 10:00 in the CA Robertson Council Chambers, 54 York Street, George.
During his term as Executive Mayor, Cllr Wessie van der Westhuizen has been highly instrumental in the many successes of Eden DM Cllr Henry Mc Combi, Portfolio Chairperson of the Department Community Services, has on many occasions inspirationally lead the Department as a visionary leader, and has supported this project from its inception. The Municipal Manager, Mr Godfrey Louw, as the Accounting Officer of the Municipality, continuously encourages his team to be innovative in their endeavours to perform service delivery, even though the municipality is facing difficult financial challenges.
Eden DM developed a specialised mobile application, called the Municipal Mobile App, which can be downloaded and used to perform various tasks, including inspections at food sites, child care facilities, farm and general health surveillance. This Smartphone technology is promising Environmental Health Practitioners (EHP’s) the use of detailed inspection forms, geo-location recording, capturing of photographic images and signatures, as well as SMS/e-mail notifications of inspection results. EHP’s in the district have been using this mobile application to capture inspections and so far approximately 2 000 inspections were conducted since January 2016. The pilot project was led by a passionate and highly dedicated EHP, Mr Francois Koelman. The future of Municipal Health is in the capable hands of the vibrant youth within the Unit.
The benefit of this initiative will have a positive impact on administrative costs, time spent to capture findings during site visits and an increase in productivity. In the past, inspection findings, reports and statistics had to be re-captured after inspections, which resulted in additional and unnecessary administrative work. By replacing the inspection books with mobile applications, information is transferred directly to the Municipal Health database, with supporting evidence (documents, photographs and signatures). Inspection reports are auto-generated and e-mailed directly to the site representatives. More accurate and detailed statistics provide essential information for future planning and health control.
Mr Johan Compion, as Manager of the Municipal Health and Environmental Services, is committed to provide the best services to the people in the district. The environmental health challenges of the 21st century are complex and dynamic and outbreaks such as the Zika virus, Vibrio Vulnificus, genetically modified foods, air pollution and waste management challenges, as well as climate change related environmental health problems, pose a threat to everyone’s life. “We as the Eden District have a statutory mandate to protect the environment for the health of our people – something we as a department takes very seriously. We believe that people are not statistics, but statistics are real people,” said Mr Clive Africa, Executive Manager: Community Services. According to Mr Africa, this project is a dream that has come true, and he would really like to thank everybody for their participation.
Please note that a presentation will be held during the launch after which members of the media will be given an opportunity to pose questions.
