Delivering sustainable healthcare to SA's most vulnerable
With the doctor to patient ratio in South Africa averaging 1:1,000, it is no surprise that the bulk of primary healthcare services in rural districts and townships are performed by skilled nurses.
As a result, training and business resources for nurses are scarce, limiting the level of responsiveness that primary healthcare clinics can provide to local communities.
Jaak Peeters, global head: Global Public Health, Johnson & Johnson, Lynda Toussaint, CEO: Unjani Clinics, Sister Patricia Mbatsha, owner/operator: Unjani Clinic Atteridgeville, Dr Paul Stoffels, chief scientific officer: Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceuticals, Dr Iain Barton, group business development executive: healthcare, Imperial Logistics
Empowering nurses
The Unjani Clinics’ unique service delivery model empowers nurses - the clinic owners - to become community health entrepreneurs, providing them with a local health centre comprising a 12m converted shipping container, medical equipment, as well as ongoing medical, financial management and patient service training.
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Increasing the footprint
Unjani recently announced a pioneering partnership with Johnson & Johnson and some of its affiliated companies to improve the access and quality of primary healthcare available to low-income communities throughout South Africa. With a current footprint of 20 clinics - all funded by the Imperial Group to date - it is intended to scale to 50 clinics throughout the country by 2018.
Delivering on healthcare
“We have an opportunity to deliver a level of care to vulnerable populations that has never been achieved before. Our objective is to continue to incubate novel, sustainable community health practices in South Africa and potentially in neighboring countries. Our partnership with Johnson & Johnson provides an important catalyst to delivering on the promise of better healthcare for all South Africans,” says Lynda Toussaint, CEO of Unjani Clinics.
Unjani Clinics have provided more than 110,000 South Africans with a number of medical services, including primary healthcare, vision screening, wellness and chronic disease management. One of the goals of the collaboration between the Johnson & Johnson companies and Unjani is to establish additional clinics, thereby creating additional jobs and treating up to 240,000 patients annually through the Unjani Clinic Network.
Creating indigenous solutions
“In our effort to deliver innovative approaches to public health challenges, we seek out strategic partners, such as Unjani, who are applying creative, proven, locally-driven health solutions that can be scaled nationally and regionally,” says Laura Nel, communication lead for Johnson & Johnson in South Africa.
The collaboration with Unjani in South Africa is part of Johnson & Johnson’s broader commitment to improving public health. The company recently launched its global public health strategy, aimed at harnessing expertise and resources to innovate and collaborate in finding solutions for public health issues, especially those plaguing Africa.
