Free Second Saturdays Basic Health Screenings

Hosted for free on the second Saturday of each month, this is our way of giving back

South Africa has a huge healthcare challenge

Access to quality and affordable healthcare remains one of South Africa’s biggest challenges and needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency. This challenge is due to a combination of three main factors: unsustainable cost of private healthcare services, inadequate resources at state facilities, and too few healthcare providers –particularly in the primary healthcare space. Our socio-economic divide is starkly represented in our fractured healthcare space where currently close to 84% of the population seek healthcare in the government sector. The COVID-19 pandemic has only made things worse – laying bare an overwhelmed state medical system, a burnt-out workforce, and making the private healthcare system further out of reach for most.

We are offering FREE basic health screenings to help

At Epione Health Village Rosebank (EHVR) we believe that providing healthcare is the highest expression of humanity. We believe that everyone should have access to a welcoming and inclusive space where they can express vulnerability without judgement and receive appropriate care regardless of their ability to pay. Our primary healthcare doctors are committed to providing the best healthcare they can, to all members of our community, and we are looking at various business models in order to make this vision sustainable.

Everyone is welcome

This is for anyone who cannot afford to pay for private healthcare services, for any reason. We will not ask intrusive questions – we are simply here to serve. Perhaps you used to have medical aid and cancelled it, or maybe you have run out your medical savings account but still need help, or you have never even had medical aid. We do not ask you for anything – just feel free to come as you are.

What to expect during Second Saturdays

On the second Saturday of every month, EHVR opens its doors to members of our community who cannot otherwise afford private healthcare. They are welcome to consult with Dr Sam Fee, Dr Siân Basnett and Dr Darren Nyoni for FREE. Our doctors, nurse and volunteers will register attendees as members of our health village, record necessary history and health concerns, and conduct basic health checks:

  • General check-up and advice
  • Blood glucose
  • Body Mass Index (BMI)
  • Blood pressure

What happens afterwards?

Where required, we will do our best to refer patients to higher levels of care or state facilities for further treatment or investigations. For continuity of care, patients can return to us for follow-up on another Second Saturday (for free as always), or sooner than that on any other day, at a reduced consultation fee.

Partner with us to help

If you would like to volunteer, sponsor supplies, partner with us as a CSI initiative, or partner with us in any other way, please contact us on hello@epionehv.com. Simply spreading the word, is also very helpful. Please feel free tag us on social media if you do!


#SecondSaturdays

FREE HEALTHCARE SERVICES ON OFFER

Join the Second Saturdays revolution on the second Saturday of every month from 9am to 2pm.
Walk-in on the day or book via phone +27 (0)11 880 5349 or on the epione.net app

GENERAL CHECK-UP & HEALTH ADVICE

BLOOD GLUCOSE SCREENINGS

BODY MASS
INDEX (BMI)

BLOOD
PRESSURE

PRESCRIPTIONS & ONWARD REFERRALS

Second Saturday Basic Health Screening Dates 2024

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)







Free Community Clinic

Everyone is welcome. This is for anyone who cannot afford to pay for private healthcare services, for any reason.

We will not ask intrusive questions – we are simply here to serve. Perhaps you used to have medical aid and cancelled it, or maybe you have run out your medical savings account but still need help, or you have never even had medical aid.

We do not ask you for anything – just feel free to come as you are.

The second Saturday of the month, all year around. It’s open from 9am to 2pm – but if there’s a need we’ll open for longer.

This is a new initiative, so we are starting with screenings for now and then evolve from there.

  • Health screenings and advice
  • Height and weight (BMI)
  • Blood pressure
  • Glucose (blood sugar)
  • Short general examinations
  • Prescriptions (but we cannot ourselves dispense medication at the moment)

Where required, we refer patients to higher levels of care or state facilities for further treatment or investigations.

Nothing – just yourself

Nothing. It is totally free and you can come as often as you need to on any second Saturday of the month.

Where required, we will do our best to refer patients to higher levels of care or state facilities for further treatment or investigations. For continuity of care, patients can return to us for follow-up the next month for free, or sooner than that on any day, at a reduced consultation fee rate.

Hours: The free Clinic hours are 09:00am to 2pm

Booking: The attendees can register for the clinic via one of the following methods:

  • Walk-in on the day of the event without a booking
  • Making a booking on the epione.net app
  • Calling the facility to make a booking – 011 880 5349

Address: 5 Glenhove Road, Melrose Estate, Johannesburg







Patients

The aim is that our health villages and medical centres will provide all primary care services for every member of the community under one roof – doctor consultations, minor procedures, basic laboratory services, pharmacy and so forth.  This provides a single point of care for our patients many of whom travel from one place to the next to find the care that they need.

The company name is inspired by Epione, the Greek Goddess of the soothing of pain, and that is exactly what we aim to do. Epione was the wife of the medicine-god Asklepios (Asclepius), and the mother of the five Asklepiades (Asclepiades): Hygeia (Good Health), Panakeia (Cure-All), Iaso (Healing), Aigle (Radiance), and Akeso (Curing).

So how does one pronounce it? Is it Eh-pee-Own or Eh-pee-One? It’s the first – we pronounce it as eh-p-ee-aw-n. Although, a Greek friend recently told us it’s probably more like eh-p-ee-aw-n-ee. You’re welcome to choose what you prefer.

EHV Rosebank is open from:

  • Monday to Friday from 8am to 6pm
  • Saturday from 9am to 1pm
  • Closed on Sundays and Public Holidays until further notice

Please also note that you are welcome to contact your doctor in line with their own preferences. Our doctors are also able to conduct virtual consultations and monitor you remotely when you grant them access to your electronic healthcare record on epione.net

Download the epione.net app and search for any of our affiliated GPs. Currently, 

Dr Samantha Fee and Dr Siân Basnett are practicing at the Rosebank Epione Health Village. Book an appointment at a time that is convenient for you. 

While this booking method helps our doctors, practice managers and patients to co-ordinate appointments most efficiently, you can still of course also call us on

 +27 (0) 11 880 5349, during office hours:

  • Monday to Friday from 8am to 6pm
  • Saturday from 9am to 1pm
  • Closed on Sundays and Public Holidays until further notice

Alternatively, you can also email our practice managers and digital enablement officers to make other arrangements best suited to your needs: nkazi@epionehv.com and munya@epionehv.com.

Please note that in future, our availability will increase as we add more doctors to our team.

Our FREE epione.net is the only web and mobile-based platform in Africa that connects all healthcare stakeholders collaborating on a patient’s care – starting and ending with the patient themselves. As a patient you can use it to search for and book appointments with GPs; own and access your healthcare records 24/7; add and manage family members as dependents, and so much more: https://epione.net/patients/ It’s super easy to download it  – just search for the epione.net patient app in either the Apple App Store, or Google Play Store.

It’s super easy. Just search for the epione.net patient app in either the Apple App Store, or Google Play Store.

https://apps.apple.com/app/id1487920012https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.epione.patient&hl=en_ZA&gl=US

We welcome walk-in patients. A friendly face from our tribe will try their best to assist you with what you need.

As part of our response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we enhanced our epione.net platform to enable us to conduct a contactless digital screening process to reduce the need for patients and members of our tribe to risk having to constantly touch and sanitize pen and paper. Those who do not pass the screening at entry will be asked to reschedule their visit until they are symptom-free (unless otherwise arranged with their doctor). 

Once inside, we adhere to strict COVID-19 prevention protocols to keep everybody as safe as possible.  Everyone is required to wear their mask and sanitize when entering the premises.

We will soon be offering COVID-19 PCR testing with extremely fast turnaround times as an end-to-end solution to our patients and presenting a safe and secure environment for all.

Did you know that if you’ve had your COVID-19 test with a facility on our epione.net platform, you can view your results in-app and download them for printing? We’ve partnered with labs such as Lancet Laboratories and Pathcare to make testing for travel that much easier. We add on new lab locations over time, so keep checking if there isn’t one close to you yet.

This is a practice where payment is made up-front. For health and safety reasons, we hope you’ll understand that we prefer not to handle actual cash because we would rather not have  to designate some poor soul with the risky task of having to sit in the back sanitising notes and coins! 

Payment can be made via a POS card machine and Snapscan. If you’d like your medical aid/ health insurance to pay for your healthcare bills don’t worry – we will generate an invoice for you that you can use to claim costs back from your medical aid /health insurance.

We, the tribe, do our best to ensure that our Village is self-sustaining and benefits local communities. For example, in designing the facility we used a local architect firm, and artisans from the local community for furniture creation and design. It was important to us to have the local community take part in building our village.

You’re welcome to contact us on hello@epionehv.com

Doctors

So many reasons! Please check out our full value proposition for you and your patients here: Our Value Proposition

Our main aim is to ensure that a patient’s journey is seamless end-to-end, and that all patient information pertaining to a patient’s case is collected and stored under our “vault”. This makes it so much easier for healthcare stakeholders collaborating on a patient’s case to have secure access to one true source of information. Since EHV doctors will refer patients to doctors outside of EHV, we encourage you to please sign up for the epione.net platform for referrals from our doctors, and to promote care coordination, collaboration and information consistency for your patients: https://app.epione.net/#/sign-up.

Patients can search for primary healthcare clinicians directly on epoine.net and EHV doctors can electronically refer patients to specialists using the platform. You can check out more here: 

Use epione.net to book appointments with our doctors



Contact Us

























    Tel: +27 (0)11 880 5349
    Email: hello@epionehv.com

    Epione Health Villages Rosebank

    5 Glenhove Rd, Melrose Estate, Johannesburg, 2196

    Operating Hours

    • Monday to Friday from 8am to 6pm
    • Saturdays from 9am to 1pm
    • Closed on Sundays and Public Holidays until further notice

    *Please note that you’re also welcome to contact your doctor directly in case they’re willing to accommodate additional hours.