New medical equipment boosts health-care services

BOIKANYO Solar partnered with the Northern Cape Department of Health to hand over medical equipment at community health-care facilities in the Siyancuma municipal area as part of a collective effort between public and private institutions to support the needs of primary health-care services in the region.

The medical equipment provided consisted of ECG machines, paediatric saturation metres, a medicine trolley and adult and paediatric Ambu bags.

The equipment will play a crucial role in addressing local health-care facilities’ needs, as well as providing immediate care and treatment and preventing illnesses.

The solar plant, together with the Department of Health, funded this support as an extension of its Healthcare Support Programme.

The department’s needs and shortages were identified through this partnership to help ease the financial burden in the health-care services.

The community liaison officer for Boikanyo Solar, Stephaline Fanie, highlighted that the health-care facilities face many challenges, while the demand for health-care services, especially primary health care, continues to grow.

“We hope to improve the conditions so that these facilities can better serve the community and foster a healthy environment,” said Fanie.

The manager at Breipaal Clinic, Pinky Tshwenyane, expressed gratitude for the intervention and highlighted that it will ease the burden for patients that have to travel to the local hospital for ECG testing.

“We are grateful for the ECG machine as it eliminates the need for patients to travel far to the local hospital for an ECG test, which is especially beneficial to those without transportation or the financial means to do so.

“With the machine available, diagnosis of cardiac problems can now be conducted at the facilities. Similarly, the finger saturation device will aid in identifying oxygen deficiencies and detecting lung problems early on,” said Tshwenyane.