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31 August 2018 Photo Godfrey Ndoda
UFS Mobile Clinic - an exemplary framework of innovation
Free State Department of Health and the UFS Faculty of Health Sciencesentered into a partnership set to improve primary health care in the Free State society.

The Coordinator of Community Engagement and Rural Health in the Faculty of Health Sciences, Dr René Botha, described the unveiling and handing-over ceremony of the University of the Free State (UFS) Faculty of Health Sciences’ Mobile Clinic as “an auspicious and phenomenal occasion in the history of the faculty, and the institution as a whole”.

This mobile healthcare service will align itself with the current mobile service offered by the Free State Department of Health (FSDH) and will include an optometry service. This is the first service of its kind and aims to expose students and the broader community to mobile primary healthcare on rural platforms.

This collaboration between the Faculty of Health Sciences and the FSDH is believed to change and improve lives.   

“The purpose of the clinic is to enrich current primary healthcare measures that were implemented through valuable collaborations. This will result in the betterment of community members who have limited access to healthcare resources,” explained Dr Botha.

UFS medical students have been working on a continuous healthcare programme that started in 2016. The programme operates in areas in the southern Free State, where students engage with the community, schools, clinics, and are making home visits to residents in the area. The main purpose of the programme is to find solutions to key healthcare problems in the region. 

The MEC of Health, Montseng Tsiu, addressed the audience and explained, “implementing primary healthcare holistically through the mobile clinic, will benefit residents in rural areas who have a lack of facilities”. 

According to Prof Francis Petersen, UFS Rector and Vice-Chancellor, the mobile clinic is an example of the innovation framework that cultivates the university’s mandate. The mandate stipulates the creation and maintenance of equitable partnerships with the province, the FSDH, the Department of Education, and many other crucial stakeholders that will ensure the imparting of knowledge, excellence, and quality in contributing to society.

News Archive

Grants for three NRF chairs
2012-02-16

Research at our university got a significant boost this week with the awarding of three research chairs by the South African Research Chairs Initiative (SARChl) of the National Research Foundation.

The chairs were awarded in the fields of solid-state luminescent and advanced materials, higher education in human development and disease resistance in field crops. The grants for the chairs amount to R7.5 million per year for the next ten years.
 
Prof. Frans Swanepoel, Director: Research Development , says receiving these chairs in a highly competitive environment is a significant achievement. Our university received the same number of chairs as the University of KwaZulu-Natal and the University of the Witwatersrand.
 
The SARChl received 406 applications from 22 universities for 2011/2012. Following 25 panel meetings, 60 applicants were successful and were awarded chairs.
 
The UFS chairs will probably be in operation by September of this year.
 
Prof. Swanepoel says the SARChl’s future calls for applications will create the opportunity to increase the number of chairs at our university.

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