Following the resumption of mine operations at the beginning of May, onboarding and compliance solutions provider KBC Health and Safety partnered with occupational health and safety services provider Workforce Healthcare to assist mining clients in improving the onboarding process for contractors using a mobile clinic for Covid-19 screening.

The mobile clinic is located at KBC Health and Safety’s eMalahleni branch, in Mpumalanga.

KBC Health and Safety operations director Sian Thurtell says it was decided at the start of the Covid-19 lockdown to position the mobile clinic at the branch making it accessible to all clients should the need arise.

She notes, however, that most mines have chosen to do screenings using their own clinics on site.

Thurtell adds that locating the clinic at the branch instead of the mine site also mitigates the risk of spreading Covid-19 by avoiding an influx of potentially infected persons to the mine site.

It has also been necessary to stagger bookings for screenings to allow for enough time for administration to ensure that there are not too many people queuing, which increases the risk of infection.

She explains that, although most mines have their own screening clinic facilities on site, KBC Health and Safety can assist with the overflow and managing the backlog given the volumes of workers that need to be screened before returning to site.

The clinic is staffed by qualified nurses to safely screen mineworkers. Screenings began in May, starting with two nurses and ramping up to four at peak demand, screening between 30 and 40 people a day.

Thurtell says about 1 200 screenings have been performed at the mobile clinic to date. “We are continuing to screen, but the numbers are decreasing steadily.”

When mines reopened in May, the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy required that each contractor returning to site produce a screening report stating that it had undergone the required medical screening, which had to have been signed off by a registered occupational nurse.

“The essential service provided by KBC Health and Safety has enabled mining clients to get operations back on track and remain compliant with the requirements and legislation with regard to returning to work during the Covid-19 pandemic,” Thurtell says.

“We trust that this relationship will grow for years to come, as we continue to partner with clients to find solutions to their compliance and contractor management needs,” concludes KBC Health and Safety portfolio manager Lara Clarke.