Missionary work in KwaZulu-Natal these days is a far cry from handing out bibles and preaching to rural villagers and has adapted to offer desperately needed services to the community — such as flying doctors to remote clinics each week.
This is not a new venture for Zumat, a missionary organisation that has operated for 27 years in the province, but the missionaries are now hoping to become part of the Ambulance Medical Service.
The idea came from John Wesley Hunt, a World War I pilot. In 1970 he set up the organisation to transport doctors because he saw the difficulties that patients had when travelling to Bethesda hospital in Jozini. Dirt roads and treacherous passes made travelling a nightmare for doctors and patients in the area, so he decided to fly doctors to community clinics.
But he had no plane.
After a few years a former superintendent of Bethesda mobilised churchwomen to collect used stamps. After selling a few hundred kilograms of stamps, and receiving a donation, they had the funds to buy the first plane for R20 000.
John Stevens, a mission pilot, was asked to fly for Zumat because Wesley was by then too old for the mission. Stevens began to fly four doctors to Bethesda hospital in 1975.
“We used to carry the drugs in our pockets on the plane and I used to dispense it to the patients.” He jokes that he must have dispensed the wrong medicines at times because he had no medical experience.
The service has grown with the support of churches and now operates five planes with five missionary pilots. Zumat has struggled to survive because the fees charged at hospitals do not cover the running costs. So the missionaries once again adapted to the demands of their work and became tour guides.
They now also work as a charter service, flying tourists to pay for the air fleet’s fuel and maintenance costs.
Stamp collecting still generates funds with a recent donation from a dealer who buys the stamps in the United Kingdom bringing in a few thousand rand.
“We also lease a plane from a committed Christian lawyer at a good rate,” said Stevens.
Members of Zumat were on tenterhooks last Friday because an inspector from the Civil Aviation Association was checking to see if the group complied with the regulations for endorsement their licence to operate as an ambulance service. The outcome is still pending.
Doctors hope that Zumat will be recognised as an ambulance service so remote hospitals can save more patients. “It has been a long battle with the association. We are buying a bigger plane for the ambulance work,” said Stevens.
An anonymous donation provided the funds for an eight-seater Cessna that will be used for the ambulance service.
Stevens says the legislation requires more sophisticated services for flying paramedics. In the past Zumat operated as a private company but it will be able to service more hospitals if it becomes an ambulance service.
Hospitals in the area are supposed to visit satellite clinics each week to treat patients whose illnesses the nurses are unable to diagnose. Zumat services three hospitals in the area. “Each week we fly doctors from different hospitals to their clinics,” says Stevens.
Doctors flying with Zumat feel that the service is a valuable resource that helps them treat far more patients. Stevens says that hospitals that do not use Zumat cannot visit their clinics regularly.
Bethesda has eight clinics to oversee, but the two closest have no airstrips. It takes doctors most of the day to reach to them by car.
“With Zumat we manage to visit three of our clinics in one day. [Without] this service we could not do this,” says Andrew Grant, manager of Bethesda hospital. “Many patients would not have survived if it was not for Zumat.”
He says Zumat does not replace the ambulance service but is available for emergencies. The service will be far more valuable to hospitals when Zumat is recognised as an ambulance service. “If the roads were improved it would help the ambulance service, but as things stand we would have to give up visiting clinics if it were not for this service.”
Grant says he uses the service to promote his hospital to doctors who are choosing where to work during their community service. “A lot of doctors come here because it’s fun to fly to clinics. They can’t believe they get paid to fly over our beautiful part of the world,” he says.
“This service helps sisters to manage patients so the doctor sees the more serious patients at the clinic.”
He says it is far more cost-effective for patients to be treated at the clinics instead of having to travel for hours to the hospital.
Clinics are responsible for building and maintaining their own airstrips.
“The people were very appreciative, but it has taken many years to get the clinics up and running with sufficient airstrips to land on,” says Stevens
Brett Moulan, a pilot who moved to Jozini only four months ago, says that working for Zumat has been rewarding. But he often finds that landings are dicey because the local people use the airstrips as a road to transport herds of cattle or as playgrounds for their children.
“There is so much work to do,” says Stevens. “We want to service as many hospitals as we can.”
He says Zumat hopes to extend its service to include all hospitals in KwaZulu-Natal.