December 2, 2004
By Ndaba Dlamini
DISADVANTAGED communities in Johannesburg are set to benefit from a partnership between the City's Health Department and the University of the Witwatersrand, which aims to promote primary health care.
The deal, described as a 'win-win situation' for both parties, will see Wits' Centre for Health Science Education providing skills development and training to students in health promotion in communities around Johannesburg.
Speaking at the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the two bodies, councillor responsible for health in the City, Prema Naidoo, said the partnership would see the City reaching out to residents who had been denied access to basic health services.
"Because of this partnership, we will begin to attend to primary health care issues in places like Soweto."
The Health Department's Assistant Director Primary Health Care, Sara Dass, said the Department would make an invaluable contribution in the promotion of primary health care in communities, with the assistance of Wits University.
"The City needs partners in order to achieve its aim of promoting primary health care. The Wits Centre for Health Science Education is already committed to providing valuable contributions to the City's public health service policies, through training and monitoring of health programmes. We will jointly look at research areas in order to improve the health status of society."
The Centre is currently undergoing change, according to Professor Detlef Prozensky, who is also a committee member of Wits Community Oriented Education unit. "Under training are young doctors who reflect the demographic profile of South Africa, doctors who are being trained to serve South Africa, not London or any other places overseas. They are the kind of doctors who will be completely at home in places like Soweto, where they will provide quality services."
The Centre has already identified 21 projects within the City's 11 regions. These will involve interns who will visit schools and informal settlements to conduct research in order to improve the health status of people in disadvantaged communities.
"Two hundred and forty students will be recruited and divided into groups of nine students each. One group will do around six visits in each of the City's 11 regions. Each will then identify what they want to work on as a project, after being given input in research methodology," explained Mercy Hlungwani, head of Community Oriented Education unit within the Faculty of Health Sciences.
Under the memorandum of understanding, the City of Johannesburg also committed itself to the "continued operation" of the Johannesburg Cardiac Rehabilitation Centre, now known as the Wits Metro Cardiogym. The City has paid R10 000 towards the costs of moving the centre to the therapy gym on the Wits Education Campus.
The Johannesburg Cardiac Rehabilitation Centre, opened in 1982, operated for many years in the Braamfontein Civic Centre and later from the Johannesburg Stadium. In June 2003 it moved to the Wits Education Campus, where it is now part of the new Wits sports initiative.
The centre caters for the rehabilitation of patients with cardiac and other chronic diseases of lifestyle and is being run by members of the Wits Metro Cardiogym and a committee elected by the members of the Centre, known as Superhearts.
Superhearts present said they were "very excited" about the partnership. "We have been working on this for a long time and we are sure Council is going to score from this move. The public will surely appreciate what the City has done by providing something vital to residents," one said.
Under the agreement, the City will continue to pay salaries of two suitably qualified staff members of the Wits Metro Cardiogym, as well as the operational costs of the centre. Wits University will provide the "necessary academic support" for the rehabilitation programme, in the form of specialists, including physiotherapists and medical officers.
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