New pharmacy queuing system to improve patient experience at Mitchells Plain CHC | Western Cape Government

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New pharmacy queuing system to improve patient experience at Mitchells Plain CHC

10 September 2018

The Western Cape Government Health (WCGH) together with the Department of the Premier (DoTP) has rolled out a new electronic pharmacy queuing ticket system in September 2018 to improve the experience of approximately 13 000 patients collecting medication at the Mitchells Plain Community Health Centre’s Pharmacy per month which will aid in alleviating waiting times for categorised patients.

“The new ticket system will assist Pharmacist at the facility to track and identify the status of patients and to allow them to clearly determine which patient requires fast-tracking to avoid long waiting times. The category of patients identified for fast-tracking of medication collection will be the elderly, pregnant women, physically disabled, children under the age of 2, and patients who have a medical emergency with a fast track note written by the doctor,” said Sr. Zethu Xapile, Primary Health Care Manager WCGH.

“Our Pharmacy dispenses medication to approximately six hundred patients a day and close to 13 000 patients a month. Due to these figures, we have implemented the new ticketing system to improve our patients experience at Pharmacy,” said mahboob Roomanay, Deputy Director for Pharmacy WCGH.

A queue marshal will be present to collect the folders every 30 minutes from patients who present to the Pharmacy area and generate a ticket for each person according to their health status. Each patient will be given a tracking number which will be displayed on a screen and also called out by the electronic voice system when the medication is ready for collection.

“Previously patients had to listen to their names being verbally called out by the queue marshal which often resulted in people not being able to hear or identify when they had to collect their medication. This potentially led to many people becoming frustrated, as they were not certain when they were going to be assisted. With this new system, patients are able to track their turn in the queue,” said Sr. Xapile.

“Together with the previous introduction of the electronic e-reception, we hope to constantly find ways of improving our patients' experience at the facility and find ways to alleviate and reduce waiting times,” said Sr. Xapile.

Media Enquiries: 

Monique Johnstone
Principal Communications Officer
Klipfontein / Mitchells Plain and Western / Southern Sub-structures
Email: Monique.Johnstone@westerncape.gov.za
Website: www.westerncape.gov.za