Eskom Foundation steps up mobile health services
The Eskom Development Foundation has provided much needed primary mobile healthcare to thousands of people living in rural communities with little access to healthcare facilities.
These services are aimed at improving quality of life by delivering health services to communities in which Eskom operates through state-of-the-art mobile clinics, which visit schools. The mobile health clinics provide dental and eye-care services, as well as general health check-ups in four provinces: Mpumalanga, Limpopo and KwaZulu-Natal and the Free State. The clinics travel to communities who have an urgent need for healthcare – which is often.
“The challenges facing many of the communities we operate in are quite stark and we believe the gains our healthcare system has made can be furthered by our Bophelong mobile health service. Reaching the most vulnerable group in remote communities – the children – this service provides access to facilities they might otherwise struggle to reach. These preventative healthcare services will help us build healthier communities and ensure that universal access to basic healthcare services becomes a reality,” says Brian Molefe, group chief executive of Eskom.
Championing preventative healthcare services, the clinics were designed by the Eskom Foundation and encompasses a dental booth, equipped with all necessary material to screen, polish, extract and do fillings on teeth, a primary healthcare consultation room to carry out general health check-ups; nutritional assessments, hearing assessments, gross and fine motor assessments, as well as immunisations and a visual care booth to assess their eye sight, provide the necessary treatment and even spectacles where necessary.
The Eskom Development Foundation has partnered with the departments of health and basic education in the respective provinces – and more recently, in an effort to take healthcare to the heart of remote communities – Eskom’s mobile health clinics and Transnet’s Phelophepa train now collaborate to offer a joint health service.
“In contributing to improving the quality of life in communities where Eskom operates, the foundation has supported a number of initiatives that improve the accessibility and quality of healthcare. Our partnership with Transnet is the next milestone on our journey to ensuring all rural communities we operate in have access to much-needed healthcare services,” concludes Cecil Ramonotsi, acting CEO of the Eskom Foundation.
