First Medical Company participated in the Northern Cape Outreach Trip this year from the 27th of August until the 1st of September. This initiative was started over 28 years ago by Prof. Goldberg who was the head of colorectal surgery at Groote Schuur.

This year the team of 35 headed to Uppington. They came from five of our nine provinces bringing with them a wealth of skills. The team is made up of endoscopy specialists (doctors, nurses, admin., and commerce), anaesthetists, gynaecologists (doctors and ultrasound commerce), breast surgeons and genetic counsellors, with one of the endoscopy specialists joining from the UK. This group photo was taken on Friday 8.30am 1st September 2023 outside Joe Slovo Community Health Centre (CHC), Garies. Four additional commercial members as well as a nurse joined us for part of the trip and were not present in the group photo above.

Lynch syndrome surveillance is the main reason for these twenty-nine annual outreach trips to the Northern Cape. An annual preparatory trip to multiple clinics in the Northern Cape with two genetic counsellors, an assistant and Prof. Goldberg, has resulted in at least twelve families in Upington receiving this specialised three-pronged ‘Neptune-fork’ approach to their surveillance.

These outreach trips are so important to the communities as colorectal screenings and early detection can add 20 years to a patient's life.

This trip is also used to upskill doctors and nursing staff.

Our very own Coastal Sales Manager, Debbie Kidgell was involved.

Well done to everyone!

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