Philips inaugurates South Africa’s first Mini-Community Life Centre (CLC) aimed at strengthening primary health care and enabling community development

Diepsloot, Johannesburg, South Africa – Philips South Africa, in collaboration with the Rhiza Foundation, has opened South Africa’s first Mini-Community Life Centre (CLC) in Diepsloot, Gauteng. Designed to provide access to primary healthcare services to an estimated 1,500 patients a month, this holistic community-driven platform is anticipated to improve the quality of life of the population living in the Diepsloot Township with a focus on mother and child care. It also aims to enhance security and enable social and economic development at night by providing solar-powered LED lighting to a football field adjacent to the CLC.

Diepsloot, a densely populated township in the north of Johannesburg, is home to approximately 450,000 inhabitants and faces a number of challenges including the lack of access to qualified healthcare workers, and shortage of electricity, water and basic healthcare technology.

The CLC is a scalable, self-sufficient concept for primary healthcare delivery and social development that Philips is pioneering in Africa, and which it aims to introduce across the continent.

“Health clinic on wheels”

Philips and Rhiza Foundation launched a mobile “Health clinic on wheels” in May 2015, to service the township of Diepsloot. The main goal of the clinic was to provide access to health services, particularly access to maternal-child healthcare and dental care to the residents of Diepsloot. Since its inception, the mobile clinic has grown from strength to strength and is currently serving over 1000 patients a month, impacting the lives of 28,800 direct beneficiaries over the past two years.  

To cater for the increasing demand on the mobile clinic, Philips and Rhiza Foundation are now inaugurating a Mini-CLC in Diepsloot, which will allow for capacity to be increased to 1,500 patients a month and crucially will now enable a vaccination drive.

Community Life Center (CLC)

The CLC platform aims to turn a health facility into a community hub, where technology is bundled with an integrated service package and community empowerment interventions. Philips South Africa, Philips Lighting South Africa and Rhiza Foundation are collaborating to offer solar power (for a clean and reliable energy supply), efficient and durable indoor and outdoor LED-lighting (enabling extended opening hours and providing a safe playground and football field for the community), healthcare equipment (to enable patient monitoring, diagnosis and triage), and refrigeration (blood storage). In addition to providing healthcare equipment at the facility, Philips has also supplied an Outreach Kit to the center to allow community health volunteers to extend basic health services into the community.

To encourage local entrepreneurship and to maximize utilization of the solar powered LED lighting, the CLC will include a barbershop at the back of the facility, and also power 8-solar LED light poles in an adjacent football field for children in the community to play at night and encourage social and economic development; at the same time, by operating off the grid, it is anticipated that the CLC should be able to reduce operating costs by 80%.

“I am delighted that we have launched our first CLC in South Africa. Through the Philips Community Life Center platform, we have introduced a new value delivery model. We believe that the CLC will not only deliver essential access to quality healthcare, but will also have a positive social impact to the community,” says Jasper Westerink, CEO, Philips Africa. “To ensure the sustainability of the operation, in addition to Philips healthcare equipment, our support will include training, maintenance and remote monitoring, paired with the experience that Philips has with public-private partnerships.”

“The collaboration supports our collective responsibility to make a difference in the lives of South African citizens and we are extremely pleased to extend the day for the Diepsloot community using the power of the sun and creating opportunities for social, sporting and economic activities in the evening through the installation of our new generation of energy efficient solar powered LED lighting” says Reggie Nxumalo, General Manager, Philips Lighting Southern Africa.

The original mobile “Health clinic on wheels” will now start operations in Cosmo City with the aim of providing the community with similar intended benefits through the access to quality healthcare, with a particular emphasis on maternal screening to allow for early detection of complications, as well as dental care.

“Our second collaboration with Philips in Diepsloot is another exciting milestone for us that will continue to build on the significant health outcomes that we have seen come out of the mobile health clinic,“ concluded Alef Meulenberg, Chairman of Rhiza Babuyile.

For more information about the CLC platform please watch : video 1 / video 2