JOHANNESBURG – The Japanese Embassy on Monday donated a mobile clinic facility to the Aurum Institute in a bid to speed up the assessment of occupational health claims from former miners with the support of Compensation Commissioner Barry Kistnasamy.
The Aurum Institute has 20 years of experience in researching the main health challenges facing the mining industry. It has worked with Medical Bureau for Occupational Diseases (MBOD) and the Compensation Commissioner for Occupational Diseases (CCOD) since 2016 to develop a delivery model to provide much needed medical examination services to ex-miners.
The institute has worked together to perform over 5 000 medical benefit examinations in South Africa, Mozambique, Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland, which are a necessary part of preparing miners' applications for compensation for the occupational diseases covered by the MBOD/CCOD which fall under the Department of Health.
In a joint statement, Kistnasamy and Aurum Group chief executive Gavin Churchyard, said they were most grateful to the ambassador and embassy of Japan in South Africa.
"This will assist us to further expand medical services to ex-miners in rural areas of southern Africa, to enable them to gain access to the much needed compensation to which those who are eligible are entitled," they said.