Unjani Clinics – ‘Empowered Quality Healthcare’

From South Africa The Good News
Unjani Clinics is a new alternative to the South African state healthcare system which is unable to adequately serve patients with quality service. By creating a social franchise easily deployable in rural communities, Unjani Clinics is a way to empower people and create jobs. In the next three years, 90 clinics will be launched across South Africa. Lynda Toussaint, CEO of Unjani Clinics, explains this promising model to us.

Why Unjani Clinics was created?

“Unjani Clinics was created because there is a gap in South African markets from a healthcare prospective. There is significant strain on public clinics that have to effectively provide healthcare to the bottom of the pyramid. More than 84% of South Africans rely on the State for healthcare and the State is unable to adequately serve patients. Unjani Clinics was created because we believe that there are people that can afford to pay something towards their healthcare. Unjani Clinics is an opportunity to for these patients to access quality and affordable private healthcare.

How does it work exactly?

“Unjani Clinics is a social franchise. The franchisor is a non-profit company, so we can generate funding for our clinics. The franchises are the clinics themselves, the nurses approach us and we empower them because they own and operate the clinic and are able to become successful entrepreneurs into the future.

Is it a way to create jobs? Absolutely, we calculated that we can create at least three permanent jobs in each and every clinic. That is why we have been awarded grant funding from ‘The Jobs Fund’. The next three years will deliver 288 new jobs as a result.

Read more here.