Umbilo doctor brings back house calls

HOUSE calls have long been a notion of the past, with doctors discontinuing the service across the board. Now, an Umbilo doctor is bringing this attentive offering back to the 21st century.

Doctor Mario Shonga is a general practitioner (GP) with a passion for helping people. While the doctor heads to his practice in Amanzimtoti during the work day, he is available to make house calls in Umbilo and Berea between 18:00 and 22:00.

“It’s a long-forgotten piece of medicine that used to be part and parcel of the practice. If you were too sick to go to a hospital, the doctor would visit you at home and see if you needed to be transferred to hospital,” said Shonga.

He said financial difficulties contributed to the end of house calls.

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“I think alternative revenue streams like medical aids initially didn’t finance house calls. By the time it was financed, doctors had already formulated their business models around seeing people in a fixed place. Travelling out to visit patients, a doctor could only see so many people per hour, and it became difficult from a financial point of view,” said Shonga.

Shonga was inspired to bring back house calls when he ran his practice on the Bluff.

“There were a lot of requests for house calls. I initially avoided them. In the past few months, I decided to see if there is a need for it. About a month ago, I held a poll on Facebook to ask if people would use the service and got a resounding ‘yes’ from a lot of people,” he said.

He began making ‘house calls’, when he would visit various old age homes to see patients, and saw the benefits of the practice.

“I assist an old age home in the Bluff called 7th Heaven. In Amanzimtoti, there’s a large old age group called The Elders’ Voice. That’s where my geriatric care started. I was exclusively helping there, but then I saw that it was working well – we decreased hospital admissions, caught conditions earlier on. I decided to give it a try for the general public – call it an experiment, if you like,” he said.

The doctor also offers telephonic support.

A passion for medicine

Shonga, who hails from Johannesburg, began volunteering at Johannesburg General Hospital as a 13-year-old, prior to his studies. He continued his volunteer work for more than five years. He went on to study at Pretoria University, where he qualified in 2012. Once qualified, Shonga worked at a rural hospital in Phuthadichaba, where he made house calls long before he went into private practice 11 years ago.

“There’s a long history of house calls in my career. I used to do house calls to the farms – the practice still exists in rural areas. I always doubted whether it would work in the urban areas,” said the doctor.

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Shonga has also practised what he calls street medicine, offering his expertise to the homeless.

“I went on to the streets with the Central Methodist Church in Johannesburg to feed and treat patients on the street,” he said.

His passion for medicine began when a congregant had a seizure at church. “It had a dramatic impact on me, to see a doctor run up and offer help,” said Shonga.

Shonga offers a house call and consultation for R400, all inclusive. He works as a GP, surgery theatre assistant and emergency medical practitioner.

Call Shonga on 082 548 4683.

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