Faizel Patel, Radio Islam News – 10-07-2019
A Bloemfontein doctor who charges patients only what they can afford for consultations has told Radio Islam he wants people to have affordable medical care which is not dependent on their pockets.
Dr Paulo de Valdoleiros has become South Africa’s favourite medic for his initiative to help others with medical care.
Valdoleiros made South Africa proud after a Congolese Uber driver in Cape Town, started a crowdfunding campaign aimed to raise a million rand to support the doctor, saying he was shocked by his commitment.
The 58-year-old de Valdoleiros who hails from Mozambique and only started studying medicine in his 40s at the University of the Free State says he always wanted to be a doctor to help people.
“I’ve begun to understand the way that people view it. However, to me it’s the way it’s supposed to be. We are on the planet for others not ourselves.”
He says while there are those that can afford medical care and want to take advantage of the ‘pay if you can afford programme’, there are others who actually paid more because of his initiative.
“Our staff is trained to say there is no fee, it’s what you can afford. So if it happens as you’ve described if somebody can pay more and decides to pay less, we’ll never know and it’s between them and their conscience.”
De Valdoleiros indicates while there are questions about whether he can sustain the service, he says a person’s life in terms of financial obligations should depend on their income and not the other way around and that God will take care of the rest.
Listen to the interview with Dr Paulo de Valdoleiros
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