New state-of-the-art X-ray machine for Alex Clinic
ALEXANDRA - Staff of the Alex Clinic will no longer suffer from severe back aches resulting from lifting wheelchair-bound patients onto the bed of the x-ray machine.
Staff of the Alex Clinic will no longer suffer from severe backaches resulting from lifting wheelchair-bound patients onto the bed of the X-ray machine.
The clinic has swapped its ageing 15-year-old X-ray machine for a state-of-the-art Japanese gadget, Shimadzu, which has already doubled the patient numbers serviced per day. This is all courtesy of the Sandton-based Industrial Development Corporation, which financed the purchase and commissioning of the machine.
Clinic CEO Labane Maluleke could not contain his delight at the official hand over and unveiling of the R1.5 million machine that is designed in such a way that it can be moved across the room and its height adjusted to accommodate wheelchair-bound patients, whom staff always battle to X-ray when using the old machine.
“With this machine, the days of backaches are gone, as we shall no longer have to lift wheelchair-bound patients to place on the scanner bed. We now simply lower the scanner bed and allow the patient to slide onto the bed, as opposed to physically lifting and carrying the patient onto the bed,” Maluleke said.
The clinic, which has been serving the community of Alexandra for the past 85 years, has also seen the number of patients double, including those that come specifically for X-rays, as they now treat patients from far afield as Diepsloot, Soweto, Thembisa and referrals from Edenvale General Hospital.
Human resource manager Pule Phalatse said the clinic was also seeing patients from the various provinces of South Africa, including those who now come to the clinic from outside the borders of the country, including countries such as Mozambique and Zimbabwe.
Maluleke said there were times when both machines were put to use when hordes of patients swarmed the X-ray room. The use of the two machines has dramatically doubled the 30 a day patient numbers that were being serviced to more than 60 on a hectic day, Maluleke said.
X-ray patient numbers have been increased due to a government requirement that HIV/Aids cases should all go through X-rays in order to detect the presence of Tuberculosis that has become a major opportunistic killer of Aids sufferers.
The clinic has a specially dedicated section that deals with suspected Aids patients and also dispenses their monthly requirements of anti-retroviral tablets. The figures of patients requiring X-rays for limb-related issues is 30 percent compared to 66 percent needing chest investigations for possible TB cases.
