Parkland Hospital puts Springs’ health first
Life Springs Parkland hospital hosted its first Health and Wellness Day on Saturday.
The health day was hosted at the back of the hospital at the St Mary’s entrance from 8am to 3pm.
The initiative is meant as a way for the hospital to give back to the community by making free health services available for the day.
“The services include blood sugar, cholesterol, blood pressure, eye testing, ear testing, pregnancy testing and more,” says Celia van Wyk, who is the hospital’s marketing and communications coordinator.
“This day also serves to highlight the importance of having an overall awareness of one’s vitals to ensure optimum health.”
Annette says the health day is not just a once-off measure taken for community members to check their health but a first step of the hospital’s intervention measures.
“We don’t just check their health and send them home,” she says.
“If there is something wrong in any health area we give the people referrals to the relevant specialists that can assist them.”
The Community Involvement Project team of the hospital were also selling refreshments to the public to raise money for Vita Nova.
Vita Nova had a stand on the day and the public was welcome to make donations to them.
“We also have a number of partners such as the South African National Blood Services and Cancer Association of South Africa, to name a few,” says Celia.
“Other health care services provided and on display include physiotherapists, podiatrists, biokineticists, dentists, a baby clinic, birth basics, UIF services for pregnant moms and so on.”
While this was the first time the hospital hosted such an event, Celia expresses great pride and excitement at the turn-out and overall support of the event.
“It has been a success and we are look forward to continuing this every year and see an increase in numbers of attendees,” she says.
Mary Hutthinson (25) was present for the day and made use of the services provided.
She expressed satisfaction with the treatment, service and assistance she received.
“Everything went well today and I am very happy with the way I was treated,” says Mary.
“I was able to receive all the information and help I needed.”
Celia says, going forward, they will evaluate areas that may need improvement as well as capitalise on areas that proved to be a success.
“We will take this along with us in future and build on it to expand the programme,” she says.
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