Healthcare & Pharmaceuticals

• Medi-Clinic doctors are helping reduce backlogs at state hospitals

Limpopo has a range of public healthcare facilities and is engaged in upgrading hospitals and clinics and building new ones. The chief problem is to attract or retain skilled personnel to run these facilities. In
2008/09, the Limpopo Department of Health and Social Development reported average vacancy rates of 25% with doctors’ posts (64%) and social workers (70%) proving the most difficult to fill: R10-million will be spent in 2009/10 on bursaries.

For the 2009/10 financial year, the Department of Health and Social Development will spend R9-billion. A grant of R763-million has been set aside for one of the most important priorities, hospital revitalisation.
The staff accommodation component will hopefully help to attract and retain staff.

The business plan for a new academic hospital to be built in Polokwane has been approved by national government: the plan is for the Polokwane Mankweng Hospital Complex (PMHC), currently the only central hospital complex in the province, to become a secondary referral facility.

Private healthcare
The largest provider of private healthcare in Limpopo province is Medi Clinic. It runs large hospitals in Polokwane and Tzaneen and smaller
facilities at Thabazimbi and Lephalale. The company regularly awards bursaries to medical students and pursues an innovative corporate social investment strategy, which is helping to reduce backlogs at state hospitals.

In the course of three days in late 2008, Medi-Clinic doctors and nurses managed to eliminate the backlog for prostatectomies at the PMHC by doing six procedures per day: normally the hospital deals with five per week. The company has identified seven hospitals in three provinces that will receive help for orthopaedic, surgical and ophthalmic procedures.

Independent operators run hospitals at Bela Bela (St Vincent’s Hospital) and Makhado (Zoutpansberg Medical Centre).

Innovation and success
Moutse in the Sekhukhune District is one of the poorer areas of the province. But on the road between Bronkhorstspruit and Groblersdal, there is a community project that is not only turning the tide of disease, but also creating employment and providing food. The Ndlovu Care Group Elandsdoorn is the project in question, and it is one of several following a very successful model. Tuberculosis and HIV and Aids incidence was high when the project began but has been reduced significantly. A two-pronged approach caters for Community Health Care (clinic, maternity hospital, HIV monitoring) and Community Development Programmes. Schools have been built and now computers are being installed and Internet access obtained for them. Pre-schools are linked to nutritional units and there are water and waste projects and a bakery. This truly integrated project began on the initiative of
a Dutch couple, Liesje and Hugo Tempelman, both of whom are medical professionals.

ONLINE RESOURES
Health Systems Trust: www.hst.org.za
Limpopo Department of Health and Social Development: www.dhsd.limpopo.gov.za
National Department of Health: www.doh.gov.za
Ndlovu Care Group: www.ndlovucaregroup.com
Rural Doctors’ Association of South Africa: www.rudasa.org.za
South African Medical Association: www.samedical.org

















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