Noxolo Majavu
Two medical doctors are determined to make specialised healthcare accessible to remote rural communities in Limpopo with their radiology diagnostic imagery services. Seasoned medical doctors Rudzani Tshivhase and Salome Dlangamandla established Radiological Imaging Service Africa (RISA) in 2021. It provides diagnostic imaging services to patients around Thohoyandou in Limpopo, who used to have to travel long distances to tertiary hospitals to receive specialised services.
Tshivase, who is passionate about radiology, also heads the radiology department at Thelle Mogoerane Regional Hospital.“We support the clinicians who send the patients to us because with imaging it is easier for some of the diseases for them to make a diagnosis quickly. We provide services for all kinds of patients who need imaging. What we have is just a general X-ray that scans the abdomen or limbs for whatever reason that has made a patient to be coughing and sick,” Tshivhase told Vutivi Business News. The National Empowerment Fund (NEF) recently further invested R12.17 million in the business to ramp up the operations at RISA so that it can meet the growing demand for the healthcare service in Thohoyandou.
Acting uMnotho Fund Manager and head of the Women Empowerment Fund, Nomazizi Siphondo, said in a statement: “They are both medical doctors who collectively have more than 20 years of radiology experience spanning the private and public sectors. They have demonstrated passion for making specialist healthcare accessible to rural communities.” The company will also create nine full-time jobs and six part-time jobs “The funding that the NEF has afforded RISA will go towards the acquisition of radiology equipment, IT software and renovations in preparation for the installment of the new equipment. All this expansion will enable RISA to augment its service offering to a full suite of radiology services and will maximise our ability to help patients with increased efficiency,” said Tshivhase.
With new equipment, the pair will be able to offer a wide range of imaging services, including X-rays, ultrasounds, CT scans, and mammograms. Tshivhase said that radiology equipment was expensive, with it running into the millions. Also, vendors expected their money upfront. But now she was reaching her dream of building a radiology imagery service for rural communities. “I remember when I was still a radiologist at Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital, and whenever I would walk through the Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) space [or] I would pass through the oncology reception, there was a lot of Venda-speaking people. I realised that the people back home have to come all the way to Johannesburg to get such services since there were no diagnostic imaging services in the private sector,” said Tshivhase.
