To significantly expand access to affordable, quality primary healthcare in underserved communities, the Cipla Foundation’s Sha’p Left initiative has partnered with the FirstRand Empowerment Foundation (FREF). The partnership aims to aggressively scale the cost-effective nurse-driven surgeries in local communities, across the Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng.
HEALTHCARE CLOSER TO HOME
This collaboration will help to overcome systemic barriers to healthcare, particularly in terms of equitable access for low-income, uninsured individuals. For many people living in peri-urban and rural areas, access to quality primary healthcare services poses a significant challenge. Overburdened state medical facilities are often congested, resulting in long waiting times for patients.
Sha’p Left is a patient-centred, cost-aware, nurse-driven primary healthcare service in the heart of local communities. These nurse surgeries are located in easily accessible hubs, such as busy taxi ranks, to promote ease of access. The greatest benefit of Sha’p Left is that, in addition to saving travel time, it helps to empower people both in terms of caring for their health, but also financially: the lack of queues means that people don’t need to take a full day off work (resulting in a loss of income) to access basic healthcare.
Currently, Sha’p Left serves more than 5 000 patients monthly, with the patient profile comprising a 60% / 40% female/male split. The existing clinics are GMP-compliant containerised solutions, as part of environmental sustainability initiatives and lowering overhead costs, solar solutions are being implemented at these clinics.
CHAMPIONING CHANGE
Strengthening community-based primary healthcare supports national health priorities by reducing the burden on State facilities, promotes preventative healthcare and creates an empowering, dignified experience for patients.
The investment by FREF will help Sha’p Left to deploy more nurse surgeries, and these solutions will ultimately help address inequality and reduce poverty as access to quality healthcare is basic human right. The partnership will scale Sha’p Left from 11 to 61 surgeries by the end of 2029.
SUSTAINABLE SOCIAL IMPACT
The business model involves enterprise development in conjunction with qualified, predominantly female clinical nurse practitioners (CNPs) and assists them in establishing sustainable, owner-operated clinics in identified communities to provide affordable primary healthcare services.
This fee-for-service model, driven by the “entreprenurses”, provides a dignified and holistic patient experience. The surgeries have dispensing licenses, and therefore a consultation includes the necessary medication required, up to Schedule 4 medicines.
The first three nurse surgeries being deployed in 2026, as part of this partnership, are in these areas:
- Senoane (Gauteng)
- KwaNyuswa (KZN)
- Verulam (KZN)
Blending social impact with sustainability creates a blueprint for scaling primary healthcare in South Africa. With FREF’s support, the Sha’p Left model will expand further into communities where access gaps remain widest, ensuring that more South Africans can easily receive the care they need. This investment ensures that good health is not merely a privilege for a select few people, but for all South Africans.
ENDS
Media Contact:
Fidelia van der Linde
Lead – Cipla Communications
Tel: 021 943 4200
Fidelia.VanderLinde@Cipla.com
About Cipla South Africa:
Cipla Medpro South Africa (Pty) Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of Cipla Limited, India and the fourth largest pharmaceutical company in the private sector in South Africa. Through Cipla’s ethos of ‘Caring for Life’, Cipla Medpro produces world-class medicines at affordable prices for both public and private sectors, advancing healthcare and mental wellness — for all South Africans. Visit https://cipla.africa for more information.
About the Cipla Fondation
At the Cipla Foundation, we are committed to making a meaningful and lasting impact on people’s lives. Driven by our passion for people, we champion broad-based empowerment by ensuring equitable access to quality healthcare.
We want to create lasting social enterprises that drive real change. Our mission is to be a force for both growth and good, fostering transformation and making a lasting social impact. Our three initiatives are Miles for Smiles, which helps to facilitate corrective surgery for children born with a cleft condition, Ajuga, which focuses on early childhood development, and Sha’p Left, which comprises a patient-centred, cost-aware, nurse-driven primary healthcare service in the heart of communities. Visit https://cipla.africa/cipla-foundation/ for more information.
