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15 June 2023 Media Release: First-of-its-kind Municipal Health Dashboard created by Garden Route DM

Media Release: First-of-its-kind Municipal Health Dashboard created by Garden Route DM

For Immediate Release
15 June 2023

Garden Route District Municipality (GRDM) has launched a first-of-its-kind Municipal Health dashboard this year to provide easy access to data that Environmental Health Practitioners (EHP) gather and analyse on a daily basis. “This innovative tool utilises maps to present a heatmap of areas where persistent health issues, amongst others, are flagged, enabling GRDM to identify areas requiring additional interventions to meet health standards,” said Jessica Erasmus, a GRDM Environmental Health Practitioner.  Erasmus was involved in the business analysis and communication side of the system development to help the system builders bridge the gap between municipal health function and technology.

According to Clive Africa, GRDM Executive Manager for Community Services, “the dashboard aligns with Section 1 of the National Health Act, 2003 (Act 61 of 2003), which mandates Municipal Health Services to monitor various aspects such as water quality and safety, food control, waste management, premises health surveillance, disease prevention (excluding immunisations), vector control, pollution control, disposal of the dead, and chemical safety”.

“To monitor these focus areas, daily inspections are conducted and linked to the system, capturing details of businesses, owners, addresses, and GPS coordinates, to name a few,” said Jessica.

“The data from these inspections are then repurposed for monthly monitoring reports, providing the number of inspections per EHP, per region, and per premises.”

GRDM has leveraged its existing Geospatial Information System (GIS) Unit and an external GIS company, to help build a system that maps data and provides real-time satellite views.

“Integrating addresses of premises and GPS coordinates into the system allows GRDM to plot business and premises locations, sampling points, illegal dump sites, and communicable disease trend data,” said Africa.

“This integration also enables GRDM to access historical data on businesses, including compliance and non-compliance issues, with a single click, facilitating a better understanding of the municipality’s data.”

Benefits of the Municipal Health Dashboard:

  • Real-time data access allows GRDM to gain in-depth insights into the causes of specific communicable disease outbreaks in certain areas.
  • It enables GRDM to investigate whether shared water sources or common shopping areas contribute to disease outbreaks, which helps in community education and prevention efforts.
  • The dashboard information facilitates collaboration with relevant authorities responsible for addressing water source issues or other underlying problems, thereby assisting in resolving health-related concerns.
  • Overall, the dashboard offers a holistic and real-time view of GRDM’s daily activities, serving as an early warning system to prevent environmental health-related disasters.
  • The dashboard allows for the management of municipal health services. This is done by looking at the birds’ eye view of the whole district to make important managerial decisions and to enhance the functioning of the Environmental Health Practitioners.

EHP Francois Koelman, recognised as one of the best EHPs in South Africa in 2018, also played a similar role as Erasmus when he worked closely with Business Engineering in 2016/17 to develop a municipal app for EHPs – another first-of-its-kind app for municipalities. The app is also used today to link information to the Municipal Dashboard.

Feature image: Green is compliant and red is non-compliant/or requires intervention (illegal dumping) and indicates the status of the region.

ENDS