Ferroalloys producer Glencore Alloys South Africa handed over the Bethanie Clinic healthcare facility, near Brits, to the North West Department of Health this week.
The old Bethanie Clinic had become run down and ill-equipped to treat the more than 3 500 people who were visiting on a monthly basis from nearby villages in the remote parts of the North West province.
To respond to this challenge, Glencore built the all new Bethanie Clinic, across from the old one, at a cost of R30-million, and it now serves a broader community of over 27 000 people.
The facility features a patient registration area, waiting room and admission rooms, two observation rooms, an emergency room, four consultation rooms, tuberculosis rooms, dentist’s rooms, a pharmacy, a staff kitchen, a green room, ablution facilities, a boardroom, a data server room and a patient record room.
It also boasts a brand new neonatal ward, complete with two delivery rooms, a four-bed ante-natal room and a six-bed post-natal room, which has a baby booth and two bathrooms with showers.
Further, the clinic is equipped with a 21 000 ℓ water reservoir and an emergency generator.
The improved facility was developed at a crucial time as Covid-19 infection numbers increase and members of the community need an accessible healthcare facility where they can be tested.