Quality and Affordable Healthcare—Nthabiseng Legoete—GLS 2018 Faculty Spotlight

Last year, The Global Leadership Summit in South Africa captured a video to share Nthabiseng Legoete’s story. We are thrilled to welcome Legoete to the 2018 Global Leadership Summit Faculty as she shares the story of how she provides quality health care to thousands of individuals in need every day. 

Watch the video below for a sneak peek into the remarkable story of how this visionary doctor is truly transforming lives.

Life is really hard for the typical resident of Diepsloot, South Africa, and inadequate healthcare compounds the problem.

Residents there do not have adequate access to even basic healthcare services, and there is a high prevalence of treatable diseases like tuberculosis and HIV. There are only two public health clinics, and they don’t have the necessary capacity to serve the people. To add insult to injury, the closest referral hospital from Diepsloot is nearly 40 kilometers away (approximately 25 miles).

I knew there was a need for an urgent intervention.

I’ve had the privilege to work as a doctor in both the private and public sectors. And I’ve had the privilege to understand the challenges of both.

I was faced with the inefficiencies and bad service that you receive in the public sector. My experience in the private sector was completely different; it ran like a well-oiled machine. It was well resourced, and it was efficient. However, it wasn’t accessible to everybody. The good healthcare service was only accessible to about 18% of South Africa’s population.

My life story thus far has therefore—in a big way—influenced and contributed to me opening QualiHealth with the urgency that I have.

On July 28, 2015, my uncle died. He had been ill for a month and was going to the clinic complaining of fatigue. All they gave him was vitamin B tablets. He eventually developed shortness of breath and contacted me. He lived quite far from me and by the time I intervened, he was at a stage where he was in quite bad heart failure. He needed ICU intervention, and subsequently he died.

The QualiHealth model is premised on three main pillars: affordability, convenience and quality. What ties all three of these pillars together is the use of technology. That’s what enables us to have affordable, convenient and high-quality service.

Looking back to the girl I was from a small town called Spring, I’ve come a long way. I had dreams of just being a doctor, but now I’m also living the dream of impacting lives and making a difference for people.

Dr. Nthabiseng Legoete is a medical practitioner who is passionate about improving access to primary healthcare. Motivated by her faith and own family story, her vision is to make quality primary healthcare affordable for all global citizens in emerging markets. Legoete founded QualiHealth in Johannesburg, South Africa. Currently serving more than 600 patients a day at four facilities, in 2018 they are expected to grow to 30 facilities.