Life Fuel
No health service can operate effectively without a reliable, safe and plentiful supply of blood.
It is estimated that blood accounts for roughly seven percent of the bodyweight of an average person, adults containing around five litres of blood inside their bodies. The loss of blood can therefore be fatal, meaning hospitals must be stocked with enough to treat their patients without the danger of running out.
In South Africa’s Western Cape, the Western Cape Blood Service continues to collect, process and deliver life-saving blood products to public and private healthcare providers in spite of the challenges presented by the coronavirus pandemic.
The subject of this edition’s cover, we caught up with CEO Dr Greg Bellairs, one of the first questions being how it has handled the disruption caused by COVID-19.
“We were fortunate to have sufficient reserves to weather the financial storm, and the early uncertainty levels, which were high, have been replaced by recent experience demonstrating that although sales and income were reduced, we now know to what extent, and are able to anticipate the impacts of later waves of the pandemic,” he tells us.
“Despite our financial challenges, we recognise that we are fortunate to operate in the healthcare space, which somewhat insulated us from the financial devastation faced by organisations which could not operate at all during the lockdown. One of our core goals was to not retrench any staff, and to pay everyone in full – we were able to achieve this.”
This issue of Africa Outlook also sees the launch of a new spotlight series of insights, honing in on Botswanan mining and Kenyan manufacturing, featuring interviews with leading industry associations.
Elsewhere, Kagiso Khaole, Chief of Staff and Head of Content and Services at Samsung Africa, talks to us about the multinational giant’s new range of affordable smartphones which are helping to connect consumers across the continent, while payments player DPO Group’s founder Eran Feinstein tells us why he swapped a career in aviation to start a wholly new and different venture.
This month’s magazine also includes exclusive interviews with JAM Clothing, Indwe Risk Services, Frost & Sullivan, New Southern Energy and Landmark Africa.
Enjoy the read!
Tom Wadlow
Editorial Director, Outlook Publishing