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22/01/2024
Cape Town Healthcare Programme December 2023/2024
This was the second Healthcare Programme over this period and based in one of the world’s iconic cities, Cape Town.
Cape Town is known for her natural beauty at the southern tip of the mercurial African continent – home to wealthy South Africans as well as to wealthy internationals. The City is of course best known for the iconic Table Mountain, guarding the city bowl and having stood witness to dramatic geomorphology and of course, the socio anthropological drama that has unfolded.
Today Cape Town is among the most unequal cities in the world as ranked by the Gini coefficient – this depicts the vast gap between rich and poor – something that is prevalent in South Africa but especially so in Cape Town.
The urban inequality is especially significant and has been exacerbated by the dictatorial policies of the previous apartheid administration, who forcibly removed residents from their homes, based on colour.
And then implement spatial planning policies, depriving the majority of the population the opportunity access resources. This is a very top level description of the fundamental drivers for South Africa’s struggles – encouragingly, the majority is in power and South Africa is regarded as a free country.
However, this back drop provides an enviable landscape for academic programmes from abroad to experience the realities of 3rd world healthcare and immediately juxtapose that to first world medicine. Cape Town, is after all, the home to cutting edge medical science – home to the world’s first heart transplant (Dr Christiaan Barnard (December 1967) as well as the CAT scan.
The brief and remit of this programme is to afford premed students the opportunity to shadow in our hospital systems, experience the realities of healthcare in our informal settlements and understand all the intricacies involved. This ranges from traditional medicine, to the quantity of trauma patients, to the neglected poor and then understanding the dynamics of how anyone could be neglected in any healthcare system. This opens the door to experience the critical role played by non governmental organisations and the influence and impact they have on the healthcare system. Indeed, current medical policy is being reviewed to take advantage of the NGO’s’ abilities to pe*****te these settlements and communities and provide preventative care checks.
Based on this, these nurses and healthcare workers are performing a mass triage service and they are able to BOOK patients into hospitals to received appropriate and rapid care. Rather than the current reactive process of patients arriving at the hospitals and waiting for help, which sometimes does not arrive.
These experiences for the students are sometimes harrowing and hard hitting, but this combination provides lasting memories and experiences which will be invaluable in the pre-med’s career.
But it is not all work! It is impossible not to be distracted by the dramatic landscape, gorgeous scenery, incredible mix of cultures, traditions and food. Indeed, weighty experiences include the ferry trip across to Robben Island, where many of modern South Africa’s fathers were imprisoned, most famous of which is Nelson Mandela. Students of today are understandably removed from the human drama and incredible achievements of this man and his colleagues and the role they played in not only liberating South Africa, but setting a right that was wrong, globally. Arguably, this is the crucible for global understanding of discrimination. IT is therefore imperative to place this modern history into context and relevance for students, particularly those from abroad.
Fun experiences included a taste of something else South Africa is renowned for, it iconic safari opportunities. Cape Town is not the natural habitat for the famed “Big 5”, however a day trip to one of the reserves 2 hrs from base is an opportunity to unpack what Conservation really is and of course, to get up close and personal with some of Africa’s iconic megafauna. It is not quite the Kruger National Park, but a perfect opportunity to appreciate these incredible animals and take advantage of photographic opportunities not normally available at the more renowned reserves.
In terms of taste, immersion and interactivity, this programme experienced cooking lessons from a core culture and community in Cape Town at the iconic Bo-Kaap location. This niftily weaves hundreds of years of culture, including the highs and lows of oppression and freedom, all in a safe and fun environment.
No trip to Cape Town is complete without visiting the legendary seal colony at Boulders Beach, nor the dramatic coast line of Cape Point and of course, being up close and personal with Table Mountain.
The 2023 tour experienced Cape Town’s tourism revival, a step up even from the 2022 tour as Covid recedes into the dark recesses of our collective memory. The immense popularity of this iconic global destination further adds to the anxiety of the gini coefficiency, as immense wealth pours into the city over that period, students are again at the coalface of the desperation some residents suffer.
The students and faculty will no doubt leave with a whirlwind of intense memories and experiences that will not doubt put them in excellent standing when they open their next text book to discuss community medicine. Quite a mental programme delivered in only 10 days.
