The University of Fort Hare’s faculty of health sciences brought smiles to residents of Smiling Valley near Mdantsane with a mobile clinic initiative that provides weekly healthcare services to the community.
The initiative, a partnership between the faculty and the Eastern Cape department of health, comes after the university received R1m from the department of higher education.
It has brought healthcare services closer to the community, which does not have a clinic.
The mobile health facility provides primary healthcare services such as health education, basic screening for diseases and basic healthcare interventions.
It is administered by students from the university’s department of nursing science and the department of rehabilitative sciences under the supervision of qualified and professional health practitioners.
The community chair in the village, Vatiswa Lugogwana, said that previously residents used to walk more than 10km to a clinic in Mdantsane’s NU1.
“Smiling Valley has no basic services. It is even difficult for ambulances to access our area due to the bad roads.
“Before the mobile clinic initiative, we used to cross a dangerous forest to a clinic in NU1.
“This led to some residents defaulting on their medication.
“We are so grateful to Fort Hare for this initiative, because it is going to save lives,” Lugogwana said.
The university's nursing science head of department, Ntombana Rala, said the initiative had made a positive impact on the community.
She said Smiling Valley was chosen because the nearest clinic was far from residents.
“The village has community leaders who have a vision for their area. We started working with them in 2022.”
Rala said the university’s teaching and learning for healthcare practitioners was not complete without primary health.
“Primary health is key in our province, because it is rural,” Rala said.
“The mobile clinic was initiated during the 2023 second semester; we have been doing it weekly, on Thursdays.
“Because the community previously had no clinic in walking distance, some patients defaulted on their medication.
“But we no longer have defaulters in the community.
“We have also referred some patients to hospitals.”
The university's deputy vice-chancellor for teaching and learning, Prof Renuka Vithal, said the project was a great example of academic institutions working with stakeholders to make an impact on surrounding communities.
“Community engagement and community service is key to our teaching and learning and research programmes.
“It is important to develop meaningful partnerships, not only for training our students, but also to give our academics the opportunity to do research and to better inform the kind of teaching we do, as well as the kind of services we offer to impact the health and wellbeing of our surrounding communities,” Vithal said.
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