The network assists black female nurses to own and operate primary healthcare clinics.
Pharmaceutical company Pfizer has applauded the Unjani Clinics Network for meeting the targets set for it to provide quality but low cost health services for the poor, in return for funding.
Since 2016, the company has funded the programme, which also aims to create permanent jobs in places where joblessness and poverty are the order of the day, the regional president of Pfizer Middle East, Russia and Africa, Patrick van der Loos, said at the company’s recent 175-year anniversary celebration at its headquarters in Dubai.
The Unjani Clinic Network is an enterprise development initiative that helps black female nurses to own and operate primary healthcare clinics. Founded on an owner-operator model, Unjani Clinics serve the “bottom of the pyramid” and under-served areas, ensuring affordable healthcare and medicine.
“South Africa has a population of 59 million people, of which only about 10 million people have private medical insurance,” Van der Loos said on the sidelines of the event.
“In 2023, Pfizer pledged R11 million to the Unjani Network and, to date, Unjani Clinics has set up 154 clinics nationwide, with the goal of establishing more than 600 clinics by December 2030.
“We measure outcomes to see if we have invested into the right professional nurses and since the start, we have funded 20 clinics directly in various areas and so far in the clinics that we have funded, we have recorded over 300 000 consultations and 54 permanent jobs have been produced.”
He said on average, one clinic serves 1 200 people a month and with the 20 clinics funded by the company, 288 000 patients would receive healthcare annually that they would normally not have access to.
The reporter’s attendance at Pfizer’s 175-year celebration in Dubai was sponsored by the company.