When you fall ill, it’s often at the most inconvenient time. Dr. Lerato Masemola’s patients really appreciate that her Thari Health clinic is open until 7 pm or even 8 pm, so they can visit after work or when they’ve put the kids to bed.
Masemola opens her clinic in the mornings, takes the early afternoon off to be with her children, aged 14 and 12, then reopens at 5 pm. She lives close by, so it’s not a big deal, she says, but it’s a big deal for sick or anxious people who can get an appointment when they need one. Thari Health is open seven days a week, and Masemola also visits patients in two nearby frail care centres if they can’t get to her clinic.
She began her career studying as a specialist in forensic medicine, “but I missed the human interconnection and decided cutting up dead bodies wasn’t what I wanted to do, so I went back to clinical medicine”, she says.