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15 February 2021 | Story Dr Cindé Greyling | Photo Charl Devenish
Quick and easy access to several health-care services under one roof. From the left, are Sister Sarien de Necker, Dr Arina Meyer, Dr Gerhard Jansen, Dr Elna Kleyn, and Sister Florence Maleho.


The University of the Free State Health Practice has been serving the UFS community for decades. Conveniently located on our Bloemfontein Campus, it offers quick and easy access to several health-care services under one roof. There is no need to struggle with your health or postpone check-ups – simply visit our UFS Health Practice for a pleasant experience. Our clientele ranges from UFS top management to staff/students with limited resources.

Several services and payment options

Over and above the general practitioner services, the physicians specialise in family health, travel medicine, and sport and exercise medicine. The practice also performs minor surgeries, treat non-sports related injuries, provide female health (PAP smears, contraception, etc.), and all blood tests. In addition, travellers can obtain vaccinations, and insurance policy examinations are also done. You can also get primary health care, physiotherapy, and biokinetic rehabilitation as part of the range of medical services offered at the UFS Health Practice. 

An appointment system limits the waiting time and walk-in emergencies are dealt with as needed. While the practice claims from medicals aids, UFS staff members have the option to deduct visiting costs from their salaries should their benefits be depleted. Non-medical aid patients can settle accounts by cash, card, or EFT. Students can also use their student accounts for doctor and physiotherapy visits within a capped amount. 

Convenient health care

The UFS Health Practice is open from Monday to Friday from 08:00 until 16:30, and mostly keep to its 15-minute consultation schedule, unless an emergency arises. Due to the unique setup, it can accommodate staff and student schedules, and the broader community is also welcome to make use of its services.

Dr Gerhard Jansen says quite a few staff members and their families are already visiting the practice, and they would love for more UFS employees to pay them a visit. “We are dedicated to our patients’ care and do regular follow-up calls to check on our patients’ health. When needed, we refer our patients for specialist care.”

For more information or to schedule an appointment, please:  
call: 051 401 2603/2530

News Archive

Penny Siopis recipient of the prestigious Helgaard Steyn Award
2015-12-15

Vanya Terblance (ABSA Trust representative) hands over the award to Penny Siopis
Photo: Valentino Ndaba

On Friday 4 December 2015, Penny Siopis, the well-known Cape Town-based artist, who has been exhibiting her work locally and internationally since 1975, was presented with the 2015 Helgaard Steyn Award and a prize of R 550 000 for her painting entitled Swarm.

A quadrennial award lunch was hosted by the University of the Free State (UFS) Johannes Stegman Gallery in conjunction with the Helgaard Steyn and ABSA Trusts. The Helgaard Steyn Trust was established by the estate of Dr Jan Steyn and was named after his father and his brother who was the last president of the Orange Free State Republic.

Swarm, a 2011 painting using ink and glue on canvas, depicts a swarm of bees in a complex, dynamic, and intense manner. It earned the prestigious award that is dedicated to the promotion of artistic culture based on the adjudicators’ unanimous decision. Angela de Jesus, curator of the Johannes Stegmann Art Gallery at the UFS, Annali Dempsey of the University of Johannesburg Gallery, and Prof John Botha, Associate Professor in Art History at North West University, made up the 2015 panel of judges.

On receiving the award, Siopis thanked the Steyn family, the judges, and the people who nominated her. “I am struck by how fantastic it feels to be acknowledged. It is extraordinary when people are struck by what was your own world and the intensity buzzing in your head.”

According to Prof Botha, “Naturally the work of art is chosen on grounds of artistic merit and in the context of contemporary values with regards to both form and content.”

The award-winning painter studied Fine Arts at Rhodes University and Portsmouth University in United Kingdom. Apart from lecturing Fine Arts at the University of the Witwatersrand, she is an honorary professor at University of Cape Town Michaelis School of Fine Art. She has also taught at the Natal Technicon in Durban.

Siopis has received numerous awards for her work, including a British Council Scholarship, a Merit Award at the 2nd Cape Town Triennial, and the Atelier Award for a residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, in addition to the Alexander S Onassis fellowship for research in Greece.

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