Medi-Clinic's CSI broadens access to quality health care

The partnership with Polokwane/Mankweng hospital forms part of the flagship project of the CSI strategy, which focuses on alleviating backlogs experienced at identified public hospitals.

The patients that will benefit from the procedures are aged between 60 and 80 years and mostly from the rural areas of Limpopo.

“All these patients are experiencing a very poor quality of life and have had to rely on a permanent catheter, some of them for as long as four years to date,” says Dr. Lekhotla Richard Monare, Urologist at Polokwane Provincial Hospital. “In these communities there is a stigma attached to a man having to rely on a catheter which usually results in these patients becoming socially isolated,” he explains.

“The staff involved in this initiative are extremely excited,” continues Dr. Monare, “the doctors at Polokwane Provincial Hospital are echoing the desperation of their patients and the need for this procedure and it is only through the generosity of MCSA's CSI programme that it is now becoming a reality”.

The backlog for this procedure in Limpopo is until June 2009. Historically Polokwane Hospital has only been able to treat five cases per week. During this joint initiative six procedures will be performed per day over the course of Wednesday, Thursday and Friday this week. All the doctors involved in this initiative are doing it as part of their social contribution.

The Limpopo project precedes future initiatives in other identified provinces, namely the Western Cape and Gauteng, where Medi-Clinic will provide the facilities and joint expertise in a bid to broaden access to quality healthcare and increase the quality of life in the communities it serves.

“As a natural extension of Medi-Clinic's core business, the group's CSI strategy has been developed around four key areas, namely sport, health, education and welfare”, explains Biren Valodia, Chief Marketing Officer of MCSA. “This embodies Medi-Clinic's aspiration to encourage healthy lifestyles and to help uplift our communities”, he says.

The Medi-Clinic CSI strategy is based on a three-tiered approach. Through the top tier initiative, Medi-Clinic will address a specific area of need in line with their core offering. To this end, the hospital group will be assisting seven public sector hospitals - Tygerberg, Groote Schuur and Red Cross Children's Hospitals in the Western Cape, Mankweng and Polokwane Provincial Hospitals in Limpopo and the Chris Hani Baragwanath and Johannesburg Charlotte Maxeke Hospitals in Gauteng - with backlog procedures.

The most crucial areas of need have been identified and categorized as orthopedic procedures (hip and knee replacements), select general surgery procedures such as circumcision and ophthalmic procedures such as cataract removals. In the case of the Limpopo initiative, urology was identified as the most crucial backlog.

“We look forward to future co-operation in an effort to alleviate the burden on our public sector hospitals and to bring imperative specialist care to the most needy patients of our nation,” concludes Valodia.