Healthcare gets more support to overcome hazards posed by Covid-19 to nurses and midwives
The OmniCare Trust Mobile Clinic is a vital link in the network of healthcare providers that give people in informal settlements access to medical care. With the increase in the number of Covid-19 infections, this clinic has become an even more important provider of primary healthcare.
This week, the FirstRand Namibia HOPE Fund announced it will support the OmniCare Trust Mobile Clinic with more than N$1.2 million to carry on its work for another year, and to do Covid-19 screenings for another three months.
Underscoring the importance of primary healthcare, the Minister of Health and Social Services, Hon Dr Kalumbi Shangula said “These services are brought closer to the communities especially those who have COVID-19 symptoms but don’t have taxi money to get tested at the Robert Mugabe clinic.”
The minister also paid tribute to health workers who put their lives on the line to serve others.
The leader of the FirstRand HOPE Fund operations team, Bronwen Chase, echoed the tribute saying “The year 2020 had originally been slated by the World Health Organisation as the year to honour the work of nurses and midwives internationally, highlighting the challenging conditions they often face, and advocating for increased investments in the nursing and midwifery workforce. However, as we know the nursing world has quickly shifted attention from this original proclamation of the Year of the Nurse and Midwife to the Covid-19 pandemic.”
“This year has seen even longer hours, combined with tremendous physical and emotional demands and high stakes. Who could have imagined the critical importance of healthcare workers in our society would be brought into focus so clearly by the Covid-19 pandemic?’ Chase remarked.
“We are thus immensely happy and grateful that we are able to lighten the burden of our healthcare workers and patients who make use of the mobile clinics,” she concluded.
From the left, Shani Jarmann and Frida Muteka of the OmniCare Trust, Bronwen Chase, the FirstRand H.O.P.E. Fund operations team leader, Hon Dr. Kalumbi Shangula, the Minister of Health and Social Services, and Martin David, a City Councillor.
