WSU AND EC HEALTH DEPARTMENT RECOMMIT TO LUCRATIVE MUTUAL PARTNERSHIP

A year-long negotiation between WSU and the Eastern Cape Department of Health culminated in the penning of a historic 10-year agreement between the two parties in a bid to recommit to a pre-existing fruitful partnership between the two parties.

The excitement was palpable at the East London Health Resource Centre on Wednesday, 19 July, as officials from both entities, led by the provincial health department MEC and the Deputy Vice-Chancellor respectively, congregated to witness the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding set to kick into effect from July 2023.

Central to the penning of the agreement was to expand and solidify pre-existing programmes such as the training of medical specialists in various fields; deepen ties with communities via impactful and sustainable community engagement programmes; as well as continue to engage in innovative and impactful clinical research aimed at improving the plight of communities.

’’Since 2000 the ECDoH with WSU embarked on medical special training. This registrar training programme to date has produced 277 specialists covering disciplines such as psychiatry, paediatrics, dermatology, orthopaedics, internal medicine, and super-specialists such as cardiology, paediatric oncology, plastic surgery, neonatology, among others,’’ said EC health department MEC Nomakhosazana Meth.

It was also through the previous partnership that the health department made a decision in 2017 to fund approximately 971 underprivileged students  in various health sciences programmes such as MBChB, Clinical Associates and Prosthesis and Orthotics, amongst others, to the tune of over R111 million.

Meth said the newly signed memorandum would build on the partnership’s by providing frameworks within which the department can improve efforts towards becoming a globally competitive academic health platform.

’’The partnership makes provision for a stronger health service platform, increased production of health professionals, and introduction of new academic programmes such as specialty nursing, EMS and pharmacy, amongst others, ’’ she said.

WSU Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Research, Prof Mashudu Davhana-Maselesele was a picture of elation as she weighed on the various implications of the agreement.

She said the partnership with the department was a necessity in ensuring the university’s aspirations to teach and produce responsive healthcare professionals of the highest calibre.

’’The health department’s healthcare challenges are our challenges because we cannot train medical professionals outside the context within which the department exists. That is exactly why one of the fundamental pillars of our healthcare education is community and problem-based teaching and learning so that our graduates can respond to the real-life scenarios in our communities,’’ said Prof Davhana-Maselesele.

Several milestones have been achieved through the partnership over the years, including:

• Opening of the new Faculty of Health Sciences Building (medical school) close to the Nelson Mandela Academic Hospital
• Introduction of the Integrated Longitudinal Community Clinical Clerkships: the first medical programme in South Africa to place a whole class of 5^th medical students in district hospitals for a continuous period of about 20 weeks.
• An important milestone in 2015 of obtaining full accreditation, during the HPCSA Accreditation of our Registrar Training
• The decentralisation of the training of medical students in specialties to include East London (Frere Hospital) and Port Elizabeth (Livingstone and PE Provincial);
• Implementation of a progressive bursary funding scheme which is an important component of our social compact programme.

By Thando Cezula