Research shows that language and culture are major hurdles when it comes to accessing healthcare. Read how this doctor is breaking down barriers, via Bhekisisa_MG.
Early on a Saturday afternoon in Ladismith in the Little Karoo, just after lunchtime, Llewellyn Volmink’s little body stiffened when he heard the adults screaming in terror. The truck full of farmworkers had just arrived. They climbed from the vehicle in dribs and drabs, grocery bags in their hands.
Volmink stayed with Lizwane until he matriculated. The move, however, came with huge adjustments: his maternal grandparents, who were coloured, brought him up speaking Afrikaans; his paternal grandmother was Xhosa, like his father. Although he attended an Afrikaans school in Robertson, he lived in a Xhosa township with a Xhosa family.
He hangs his stethoscope around his neck and makes an inscription in a patient’s file in the hospital’s female adult ward. Then he turns to the elderly coloured woman, who suffers from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which makes it hard for her to breathe, and asks:"[Are you feeling better today, aunty? Is the inhaler helping?]" The woman responds:"[Thank you doctor. I use it exactly the way you told me to].
, people living in rural areas are, on average, sicker and poorer than people in urban areas. The WHO argues that, because they tend to suffer more intense illness, rural populations actually need a proportionately higher number of doctors than city dwellers. He explains:"I missed my grandmother; she’s getting old and is starting to show signs of dementia. I wanted to be close to her. But more than that, by being a doctor here I wanted to give something back to the community and return to my roots in Nkqubela. I now stay here again and it’s where I feel safe."Rural training helps to develop rural doctors
Since 2012, Stellenbosch University’s Ukwanda Rural Clinic School has allocated about 20 full- time spaces to the annual intake of medical students to spend their last year of studies, which consists of a supervised student internship, at Worcester Hospital, a regional hospital, or in one of the other rural district hospitals in the area. This is in stark contrast with the other 160 students who complete their studies at Tygerberg Hospital, which is a tertiary institution.
Ukwanda’s first students are now doing their year of community service. Seven of the eight students have chosen to do their service year in a rural area, including some from urban backgrounds. He believes this will contribute important information to the South African health system, and allow for better planning of future healthcare strategies. As a boy, Volmink wasn’t alone in his conviction that he was destined for the medical world: in Grade 2, his teacher was so persuaded that she gave him the nickname of"Doctor".
Children from Langeberg Secondary School didn’t become doctors. If they were lucky, they got employment as general workers in the town’s retail stores, or as farm or construction labourers. WHO research says most medical students from rural areas struggle to finance their studies, as their families’ incomes are usually much lower than those from urban regions.
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