Doctors train and treat at new Hanover Park SLC

Open day: Attending the official opening of the Hanover Park SLC were (from left) Dr Tsepo Motsohi, Prof Marian Jacobs, Hanover Park Community Health Forum chair Elizabeth Bantam, and Frank Molteno.

The new Student Learning Centre (SLC) at the Hanover Park Community Health Centre symbolises a new level in the relationship between the Provincial Government of the Western Cape's (PGWC) Department of Health, UCT's Faculty of Health Sciences, and the Hanover Park community.

So said Frank Molteno of UCT's Primary Health Care Directorate at the centre's official ribbon-cutting ceremony on 24 February.

While it will be used to train UCT's medical students and as an internet resource, the SLC will also serve the community through providing primary health care. It comprises four fully equipped consulting rooms, a waiting room and three online computers.

"It's been a long journey to create the new facility," said Molteno, "and it will be of real value to all in this relationship."

Echoing this sentiment was senior family physician at the centre, Dr Tsepo Motsohi. "I feel like I'm coming in at the tail end of a long narrative containing a lot of blood, sweat and tears. And what I've been trying to share with my colleagues since my arrival a year ago is the relationship between academic knowledge and the knowledge of experience, of grey hair. The addition of this student centre is going to add to this attempt and build on that relationship."

Also attending the event was Professor Marian Jacobs, dean of UCT's Faculty of Health Sciences, who explained the motivation for the university's involvement.

"In the past doctors always did their training in the big hospitals. Over time we realised that it is so important for students to be prepared to work anywhere, particularly in community services. Primary health is an important part of our health plan," said Jacobs.

"Students need to be fit for purpose, and that purpose is to ensure that we contribute to health care for all."