Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare > Volume 14, Number 6 > Pp. 285-289

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RESEARCH Original articles

The use of information and communications technology for health service delivery in Namibia: perspectives of the health service providers

Meke I Shivute ^*, Blessing M Maumbe   and Vesper T Owei 

^* Department of Business Computing, Polytechnic of Namibia, Windhoek, Namibia; College of Business and Technology, Eastern Kentucky University, Richmond, USA; Faculty of Informatics and Design, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Cape Town, South Africa

Correspondence: Blessing M Maumbe, College of Business and Technology, Eastern Kentucky University, 521 Lancaster Avenue, Richmond, KY 40475, USA (Fax: +1 859 622 6676; Email: Blessing.Maumbe{at}eku.edu)

We surveyed health service providers in Namibia to find out how they used information and communication technologies (ICTs) to deliver health services to their patients. A structured questionnaire was administered to 21 health service providers in two regions of the country (one urban, one rural). There was overwhelming consensus among the health service providers that ICTs were very important, especially for medical services (100%). Ninety-one percent of health service providers viewed ICT as helping them to interact with other providers in other health institutions. The most commonly used ICT was the telephone, which was used in the admission areas of most health institutions (36%); the next most commonly used ICT was the PC (23%). The most commonly used channels for communication with patients were the telephone followed by TV. Some of the problems common to all health institutions in Namibia were poor budgetary resources and lack of basic infrastructure such as electricity or telephone lines. There is a need to promote ICT use for health service delivery and also to stimulate patients to use ICT to access health services and relevant information.

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