Attendees of the press conference included the Minister, Commander of the King Hamad University Hospital (KHUH) Brigadier Doctor Shaikh Salman bin Ateyatalla Al Khalifa, along with eGovernment Authority CEO Mohammed Ali Al Qaed and Central Informatics Organization President Dr. Mohammed Al Amer, in addition to a significant number of senior officials from Health Ministry and eGovernment Authority.
The service allows electronic registration for newborns rather than following conventional procedures. It allows users to obtain the identity card – CPR – for newborns, apply and attain birth certificates, pay all fees related to such transaction and receive documents via mail. As a result the procedures timeframe was reduced from 4 weeks to 5 days maximum.
“As instructed by His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Mubarak Al Khalifa – Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the Supreme Committee for Information and Communication Technology, the Ministry of Health has managed to adopt the National Health Information System (I-Seha) as a comprehensive healthcare strategy which aims to focus primarily on upgrading health-care services overall,” Al Shehabi, said.
“The core focus of MoH is to make a giant leap forward in terms of performance, achieve urgent advancements noticed by all health users and MoH customers as well as health professionals. Accordingly, I-Seha was launched as a huge national scheme designed to develop health-care technology system by using the latest technologies available, with the view to improve the quality of services provided – offering efficient and diversified services for patients as well as producing speedy deliverables combined with the best approaches worldwide.”
Al Shehabi also announced the launch of MoH’s new website that contains a variety of issues, information and detailed data of ministry services with all its various departments and divisions. The website was viewed by Dr. Al Shehabi as an open door for the public where feedback and enquiries that aim to raise the level of health-care delivery can be forwarded to the ministry.
Health Ministry Assistant Under-Secretary for Planning and Training as well as Team Head in charge of eGovernment programme execution Dr. Hala Al Mehzaa explained project’s phases and the key strategic benefits gained from delivering the finest eServices to enhance the level of efficiency and effectiveness for the government, public and individuals.
Dr. Al Mehzaa highlighted during her presentation that enhanced data accuracy will be ensured by this service through CIO, integrating registration system and issuing birth certificates. She also noted that the service enables the reporting of delivery cases on the same day.
“We continuously are keen to improve the delivery of services offered for the public and automating work within government institutions in order to ensure that services are efficiently and effectively provided. This is achieved today through the launch of the integrated eBirth system which reduces operating and administrative expenses; minimizes the spending of public funds and protects privacy as well as confidentiality of users. The system will also allow citizens to shorten the timeframe that could reach up to three weeks with the old conventional methods,” eGovernment Authority CEO Al Qaed, said.
He further highlighted the objectives of the new eGovernment National Strategy 2016 which builds on the fact that services should be integrated into all phases of government procedures in order to enhance users’ experience and adopt best channels for the delivery and ease-of-access to various eServices.
“We aspire to achieve excellence in the next generation of eServices through our partnership with government authorities, provide efficient and high-quality services for the public that are in line with the national strategic vision – allowing governmental institutions to take responsibility for upgrading services electronically in the next four years,” Al Qaed, added.
The eBirth service can be carried out by the hospital where infants are born. Birth registration data are entered and verified by the midwife‘s data in the birth registration system through www.bahrain.bh, with the infant’s father or the applicant. Data would then be sent to the CIO through the eGovernment portal for the issuance of a CPR for the newborn, forwarded by a text message to the infant’s father or applicant, and a copy will be filed with the newborn notification report.
The midwife then sends the newborn’s notification form with filled data to the accountant who then forwards it to the infant’s father or applicant once payment has been made.
An application for a birth certificate can be directly made by the infant’s father or applicant through the eGovernment portal and data are entered via the request of birth certificate eService, the birth notification number is recorded and the newborn’s CPR is likely to be received by SMS from the CIO. Confirmation of accuracy of all data is required, postal address and the number of necessary copies of the birth certificate will be requested. Payment procedure would then be made through the eGovernment portal. Subsequently, birth certificates are received within the supplied address.