Virtual care is becoming a mainstay of healthcare in South Africa

Virtual care is becoming a mainstay of healthcare in South Africa, especially as it relates to telehealth or telemedicine – meeting patients where they are.

Given the interest in embedding virtual care in South Africa, it’s not surprising it ranks as a top area of focus for investment. Almost half of healthcare leaders (43%) say they are currently investing in remote patient monitoring solutions (higher than the global average of 28%), with a similar number investing in healthcare professional-to-patient virtual care (42%).

Younger healthcare professionals also want to see investment in virtual care. Half (50%) say they want their facility to currently invest in remote patient monitoring, making this their most selected investment area.

Slightly fewer (47%) would like investment in healthcare professional-to-healthcare professional virtual care, which enables more distributed access to expertise across locations.

South Africa’s healthcare system faces chronic staff challenges, due to hiring freezes and medical professionals leaving for employment opportunities overseas. To help reduce the impact of workforce shortages, some South African healthcare leaders are tapping into digital health technology. Forty-four percent say that their hospital or healthcare facility is using, or plans to use, digital health technology solutions to help reduce the impact of workforce shortages. This is similar to the response in Australia (49%) but is less than the global average (56%) and far less than the response in India (82%).

The report reveals that younger healthcare professionals, aware of the benefits of digital technology, see it as essential in the workplace. In fact, when it comes to choosing a hospital or healthcare facility to work technology is a top consideration. Younger healthcare professionals (59%) cite being at the forefront of AI in healthcare as an important factor, while more than half (54%) say the availability of technology for everyday tasks is an important factor.

It is encouraging that healthcare leaders are also placing priority focus on new technologies; a vast majority of healthcare leaders in South Africa (95%) would like their healthcare facility to heavily invest in AI technologies in the next three years – higher than their global peers (83%).