Making health resources more accessible to the community. This is the purpose of Kheth’Impilo (KI), an organisation based in Kensington.
Kheth’Impilo is a leader in public health and social services innovation working towards reducing the social and health impacts on disadvantaged South Africans.
It is based at the Kensington Methodist Church on Bunney Street.
The organisation which has been operating in the area since May this year held its official launch on Saturday 15 July.
Free services offered at Kheth’Impilo include integrated home-based care, screening for STIs, TB screenings, family planning, pregnancy tests, HIV counselling and testing and covid-19 screenings.
Other services include monitoring/measuring blood sugar and weight and offering support to patients with cancer.
Sr Elizabeth Cogill, a registered nurse and facilitator with the organisation, said funding for it comes from the provincial Department of Health and Wellness and, with the local day hospital often overcrowded, people can come to their offices where professional nursing staff are on duty to assist.
“If people have health concerns such as a headache, and they don’t want to go to the day hospital, they can always pop in here. If they are concerned about a minor wound they can come here.
“We have a very good understanding with the day hospital. We help it if there are patients who cannot reach the facility; our carers go out to conduct their observations, but only on doctor’s requests.”
She said the Kheth’Impilo caters to residents in the Kensington, Factreton, Maitland and Garden Village areas. It has 28 home-based carers offering support to the more than 100 patients on their database.
“If people know they have a sick person at home they can reach out to us, and we go to that person,” Cogill said.
“Or, if they require nappies we go and do an assessment and then see if we can get supplies from the day hospital for them. I just want to make our community aware of these young ladies (our carers) who are issuing the medication. Sometimes they put their lives at risk.
“People sometimes don’t have respect for them. They are doing this because they want to serve their community.”
She said Kheth’Impilo also provided training for carers and did health-awareness outreach to the community.
Cogill appealed to people to support the carers and to work with them.
“People expect carers to arrive as early as 07:00 and we start only at 08:00. The carers are only there to assist, but the families must also do their part. Carers sometimes arrive at the homes of patients only to find that the patient is not home and they did not inform us.
“People must appreciate the carers more and work with them, then we can have a better society. We want to work the patients back into their families.”
Cogill said Kheth’Impilo is open daily between 08:00 and 15:00 and says in the coming months its doors will be open one Saturday per month for family-planning intervention and awareness services.
