WOMAN OF THE FUTURE

DR MMAMONTSHENG ‘DULCY’ RAKUMAKOE QUADCARE OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH

When it comes to accessing quality health services, Dr Mmamontsheng ‘Dulcy’ Rakumakoe understands the reality of most South Africans. ‘Less than 15% have access to proper medical aid coverage,’ she says. ‘This means that 85% of the population has to take money out of their pockets to access quality health services.’

In 2013, Dulcy founded Quadcare, a network of nine medical centres in low- to middleincome communities in Gauteng. ‘Our company provides people with quality health services that respect their dignity,’ Dulcy says. ‘We operate in and expand to locations that are close to patients and thus accessible.’

Dulcy grew up in Temba, Hammanskraal, a township just outside Pretoria. ‘What inspired me to start this business was a conversation I’d had with my grandmother as a child. We were in a queue at the doctor’s office, the only doctor in our township, and she said: “You should become a doctor one day so that I don’t have to stand for such a long time to be seen and get my medicine.”’

Dulcy opened her first practice in Vryburg, where she saw mainly migrant mineworkers. ‘They would come home with lung infections [TB, HIV and the like], which would spread in the communities,’ she says. When Covid-19 hit South Africa, Quadcare became even more essential.

‘The biggest hurdle when starting the business was to finance it, access loan-funding and access investments that could grow Quadcare,’ Dulcy explains.

But the combination of her passion for clinical excellence and her entrepreneurial spirit saw Quadcare take off: they now see 3 000 to 4 000 patients a month.

For Dulcy, winning the Woman of the Future Award has affirmed that the hard work she invested into Quadcare and its patients hasn’t been in vain. ‘I can finally call myself a woman of the future!’

This award will help bring to fruition her plan to open 25 more practices within the next three years to provide healthcare to more than 20 000 people a month.

‘I can finally call myself a woman of the future!’