Wellness Hub brings healthcare closer to the people

Wellness Hub alleviates pressure from Du Noon CHC, brings healthcare closer to the people 
 

Yesterday, Tuesday 5 March, Western Cape Minister of Health and Wellness, Professor Nomafrench Mbombo, joined the department and important stakeholders in visiting the recently established Du Noon Wellness Hub situated at the local Community Hall.

During the event, Minister Mbombo led a community walkabout and distributed more than 200 pamphlets to residents in the area in order to ensure that the community is aware of the services being offered on their doorsteps.

The establishment of the Wellness Hub comes at a crucial time.

In addition to being situated near an ever-growing community with an increasing demand for healthcare services, the Du Noon Community Health Centre by the end of last year, on average, attended to 150 adult walk-in patients and 180 children (no appointments), 120 doctor’s appointments, and 100 family planning appointments per day.

Taking into account the high number of walk-in patients without an appointments, this resulted in a longer waiting times. Furthermore, the location of the facility meant that residents often had to walk further to receive primary health care services.

The launch of the Wellness Hub in a more centrally located area brings healthcare services closer to the community ensuring that patients can more easily access free wellness services and prioritise their health journey.

The Wellness Hub offers services such as family planning, chronic diseases’ screening, child health services, HIV and TB screening at the Du Noon Community Hall between 09:00-12:00 every Tuesday to Thursday.

This initiative is central to the department’s Community Oriented Primary Care (COPC) policy, which speaks to improving access to primary healthcare services, promoting health education and preventive measures within communities while also fostering partnerships between healthcare providers and community organisations.

Mr Reuben Christoffels, who played an important role in the Wellness Hub’s establishment and is the Du Noon CHC Facility Manager, said, “We are very excited about working with our NPO partners to establish wellness services in the heart of the community. We understand that a patient’s health journey is important, and we want community members to feel empowered to make their own personal health journey a priority. By establishing the new wellness hub, we are ensuring that our community has the power and access to free wellness services closer to home. We thank our partners and our health care workers for making this initiative possible.”

Before embarking on the community walkabout, Minister Mbombo added that, “the Wellness Hub represents our vision of ‘hospitals without walls’ or ‘health on wheels’. Gone are the days that we need to adhere to the hegemony of physical healthcare facilities, where instead we can embrace dynamic initiatives that bring healthcare closer to the people who need it. The establishment of the Du Noon Wellness Hub represents our COPC policy in action and will go a long way in continuing to ensure that we leave no-one behind in providing healthcare to our communities.”