Phelophepa train brings hope and health to Mbombela
All services are offered in the coaches are on a first-come, first-served basis.
Dubbed as “The train of hope”, the Transnet-Phelophepa healthcare train has come to deliver free primary healthcare to the City of Mbombela. It arrived on August 30 and will depart on September 10.
Phelophepa (pronounced pay-lo-pe-pa) means “good, clean health”.
It is the name of two custom-built trains that deliver primary healthcare to remote areas of South Africa. Brought to life in 1994 as a three-coach eye clinic project, the train has grown to reach 375 000 people every year.
In conjunction with Transnet’s outreach programmes, they have reached over 20 million people since inception.
With about 20 resident staff members using on-board, state-of-the-art medical equipment, the trains serve about 360 000 patients annually, spending 35 weeks each year on the rails, and visiting 70 stations to provide facilities for health, oral and vision screening programmes and basic health education.
Phelophepa is currently stationed at Nelspruit Railway Station in Andrew Street. All services are offered in the coaches are on a first-come, first-served basis. It offers healthcare education, a complete physical assessment, cancer treatments, Pap smears, prostate cancer testing, eye care clinic services, a dental clinic, dental screening, and extracting and cleaning of teeth. This includes counselling and psychology clinic services.
Hundreds of community members are currently being assisted on-site by health professionals. On Tuesday the MEC for health, Sasekani Manzini, visited the train. She interacted with the patients and staff in the coaches. She urged the public to also use the opportunity to get vaccinated.
“The department has arranged a station, so that when people visit the train they can also get jabbed. We urge everyone to get vaccinated. We are still in the middle of the pandemic and people must still adhere to Covid-19 regulations,” she said.
The Phelophepa train manager, Bheki Mendlula, said their target of patients per day varies due to the influx of patients on the train.
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“Everyone is welcome. We are here for two weeks. We want the community members to know that we are closed over the weekend. This is so that the doctors can rest.
This is due to the number of patients they attend to during the week. There will be times when you will visit the train and not make it onto the list of people to be assisted on that specific day. We will try to push ourselves to see as many people as we can, although the truth is that even if we stay here for a month it would still be impossible to assist everyone.
“Those who want to access our services, must know that the train plays a supportive role to the healthcare services provided by the Department of Health. Our part is to complement the services they are rendering,” he explained.
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From Mbombela the train will visit Carolina, Ermelo and lastly stop at Bethal.
