Good Practices and Innovations in Public Governance 2003-2011

Good Practices and InnovATIONS in Public Governance
state-of-the-art kitchen was installed to prepare almost 400 meals per day and a satellite
commu nications network. The setting up of the project involved practices, which
were directly related to the mobile character of the service. In the case of the Dental
and Optometry clin ics, early decision making, involving electronic equip ment, had
to take into account the weekly vibrations and jolts involved with a train journey i.e.,
packing away of sensitive equipment and securing what can not be moved or packed
away. The Health clinic quickly realized the importance of education as a means of
prevention and then set up the Edu clinic, which gives five days of primary healthcare
lectures to a volunteer group of 16 at each station, i.e., every week.
The Pharmacy on the train was also very innovative as it developed a set of pictures,
which depict the pre scribed regimens to solve the language problems. Be cause there
are nine different languages encountered, the medical staff found great difficulty in
explaining the necessary regimens to follow when taking medicines. Phelophepa
comes from the seSotho and seTswana languages and it means “good, clean health”.
The “well-oiled machine with a heart”, as the train has been dubbed, is the only train
in South Africa that brings affordable and professional health care to rural communities.
Besides providing direct medical care, Phelophepa’s key focus is health education
and awareness. Transnet and Phelophepa produce literature in all the major
South African languages, which is distributed to teachers in the community to pass
on knowledge and awareness of pertinent health issues like teenage pregnancy. The
volunteers that work on Phelophepa are also armed with knowledge, which they use
to educate and empower themselves and their communities.
Rural (African) schoolchildren generally walk miles to and from school through
grasslands, the husks and pol lens, of which cause sever Allergic reactions and inflammatory
complications (Vernal). Once the steroid/moist cell inhibiting eye drops have
cleared the condition and therefore, the Eye clinic dispenses funded specta cles to
these children to prevent a recurrence.
Services rendered on the train include: health screening, cancer screening, diabetes
screening, eye testing and provision of spectacles, dental restorative processes and
extractions, oral health education, individual counselling therapy and community
counselling workshops. Patient fees are no more than R30 (Rand), e.g., a health
clinic consultation costs R2.50, dispensing a prescription costs R2.50, spectacles
cost R30, and extracting a tooth costs R10. All of the train’s clinics and offices are
equipped with computers and connected to the internet via satellite, which enables its
staff to transmit data, consult with other medical professionals and establish referrals
and appointment times for individual patients. In its classroom, Phelophepa gives a
full-time five-day training course to 16 community members in basic healthcare
measures. Graduates of this programme become volunteers in the community who
disseminate the information they received from Phelophepa. Following the train’s
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