The ‘Siyenza Sprint’ campaign (building on the momentum of February Frenzy and March Madness) in Amathole, aimed to increase testing (‘Know Your Status’), strengthen linkage to care (universal test and treat) and support retention in care (to ensure viral suppression).
There was unprecedented support for the Siyenza Sprint (including a provincial road show across all Siyenza districts) and TB HIV Care’s Care and Treatment and HTS teams worked extended hours to ensure that we reached more people with health care services.
A notable success from the campaign was the complete overhaul of the clinical records filing system at facilities across the Eastern Cape.
Poor records management and inadequate filing infrastructure has negatively impacted on accurately accounting for clinical interventions, as well as on patient waiting times – given the administrative bottleneck at the start of each clinic visit. Many instances of patient file duplication, missing files and pronounced delays in retrieving records have been noted, especially in high volume facilities.
TB HIV Care undertook an overhaul of the system and since February 2019 has implemented this key intervention at 35 facilities across three districts over a period of three months.
Waiting times experienced by clients have reduced significantly and the standardised approach has led to more accurate reporting interventions, improving the TX_CURR indicator (number of adults and children currently receiving antiretroviral therapy) by up to 40% in some cases.
The aim is to rapidly scale the intervention to a further 70 facilities in due course as the new system has had a significant impact on clinic waiting times, accurate reporting and, ultimately, retention in care.
