Health train of hope
CLINIC-ON-WHEELS BRINGS FREE CARE TO NEEDY
The Phelophepa train draws a crowd wherever it goes. The sound of the lumbering 19-car clinic-on-rails signals the arrival of badly-needed free healthcare for thousands of South Africans as it tours the country.
“When you arrive, people are always ready, there will be kids performing,” said train manager Anna Mokwena, a nurse.
At a stop this week in Pienaarsrivier, a town in Limpopo province, dozens of elderly patients alongside women clutching children flocked to take advantage of the service.
“We are so happy. I got two pairs of spectacles and now I’m going to see the doctor for a checkup,” said 60-year-old Janette Rakgetse from nearby Hammanskraal.
“I’ve saved a lot of money. We arrived at 5am to beat the queue. We are a group of grannies who organised ourselves to come here.”
The train clinic will spend a fortnight alongside Pienaarsrivier’s neat red-brick station before travelling 500km to Ladysmith.
It will provide access to general medicine, dentistry, psychology services, a fully stocked pharmacy and an eye clinic.
Final-year medical students at universities across South Africa help up to 400 patients a day. They will typically spend a fortnight onboard before swapping with a fresh team of interns.
Run by Transnet, the train has rotating crews of students who work with a permanent team.
“We help people to see. The train gives people hope,” said fourth-year trainee optician Percy Makgwane, 22, a student at the University of Limpopo. “I’d love to work here permanently.”
In 2014, Transnet supplemented the first Phelophepa train, which started as a modest threecoach setup but now has 19 carriages, and another train running – at a cost of R80 million for the coaches alone.
The name means “good, clean health” in Tswana and Sotho.
More than 24 million patients have been treated by the services, dubbed the “trains of hope”, making it the world’s largest mobile clinic.
Patients are typically charged R30 for a pair of glasses, R10 for dental work and R5 for prescription medicines.
“The charges give the patients a sense of participation,” Mokwena said.
The train also creates jobs wherever it stops, employing a small army of cleaners, porters and security officers for the duration of its stay.
“It’s great for the patients because they don’t have services like these,” said Mizo Zulu, a pharmacist.
Each train has 22 permanent employees, 16 security contractors and about 40 students onboard at any one time.
The immaculate white carriages emblazoned with the word Phelophepa are pulled by a locomotive powered by either electricity or diesel, depending on where it is in the country.
The trains spend nine months a year criss-crossing the country, reaching some of the most neglected communities in South Africa. – AFP