A mammogram takes about twenty minutes. A cervical smear, a few minutes more. A PSA test for prostate cancer is a simple blood draw. None of these are complicated procedures. But for millions of South Africans – especially women in low-income communities, and men who rarely engage with the healthcare system at all – they are simply not accessible.
Without screening, cancer is found late. Late-stage cancer is harder to treat, more expensive to manage, and far more likely to be fatal. The burden falls on the patient, on their family and ultimately on the public health system. Early detection is not just a clinical intervention – it is a health-economic one.
Taking the clinic to the community
Pink Drive is a non-profit organisation that operates mobile clinics across South Africa, taking cancer screening and awareness directly into underserved communities. Multiple HASA member groups have partnered with Pink Drive to extend its reach – funding the mobile units, providing staff support and anchoring screening days at or near their facilities.
In FY2025, Life Healthcare’s partnership with Pink Drive facilitated 760 mammograms, 323 cervical pap smears and 285 prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screenings at state clinics and hospitals. The programme targets patients in the public healthcare system, contributing to earlier detection of breast, cervical, prostate and testicular cancer in communities where access to private diagnostic services is out of reach.
Lenmed similarly partners with Pink Drive, running cancer awareness and screening initiatives in the communities around its hospital facilities. Given that most Lenmed hospitals are in historically disadvantaged areas – a deliberate feature of the group’s founding purpose – the partnership extends screening to populations with high need and low access.
The Gauteng Department of Health (GDOH) recently implemented an outsourcing initiative for radiation oncology services to address the growing backlog in public-sector cancer treatment. Through a reduced service rate agreement between GDOH and Netcare, this collaboration aimed to shorten waiting times for radiotherapy, thereby limiting cancer progression and improving patient outcomes and prognosis.
As part of this initiative, additional patient support services were provided, including transportation to and from Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital or Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital to Netcare Olivedale, significantly reduced the financial burden on patients, and basic refreshments were offered to enhance patient comfort during treatment visits.
A total of 70 female patients with breast cancer and 106 male patients with prostate cancer government-referred patients were treated from April 2025 to March 2026.
This partnership has proven to be highly successful. It has enabled the reduction of the public healthcare backlog, improved access to timely cancer treatment for the community, and ensured positive financial performance for the service provider.
Beyond the mobile clinic
Perhaps the most striking feature of these programmes is that the surgeons performing them are in private practice – working for themselves, not for a salary. They volunteer their aLife Healthcare’s commitment to cancer care extends beyond screening. In September 2024, the group established the Brenthurst Breast Care Centre in collaboration with Professor Carol Benn, an internationally recognised oncologist with a specialist interest in breast disease. Since opening, the centre has treated 536 patients, of whom 169 are indigent or uninsured and have received care at no cost.
The centre represents a differentiated model of CSI – not a standalone initiative separate from clinical operations, but a specialist service intentionally designed to include patients who cannot afford care.
In 2026, Life Healthcare commenced supporting Project Flamingo, a non-governmental organisation that provides ‘catch-up’ surgeries for vulnerable public sector patients in the Western and Eastern Cape. This is achieved through the use of existing public hospital infrastructure and by integrating patients into formal oncology programmes to ensure co-ordinated follow-up care.
Furthermore, the Breast Care Centre of Excellence (BCCE) at Netcare Milpark Hospital, also headed by Professor Carol-Ann Benn and her multidisciplinary team, has been internationally accredited for the third time. Only three BCCEs exist outside of the USA: one in Canada, one in the United Arab Emirates, and the one at Milpark.time, their skill and their professional risk. Anaesthetists, physiotherapists and nursing staff do the same.
The case for early detection
The South African cancer burden is significant and, for many cancer types, worsening. Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women. Cervical cancer – largely preventable through early detection and vaccination – remains a leading cause of cancer death. Prostate cancer is the most common cancer among men. In each case, the gap between what early-stage treatment costs and what late-stage treatment costs is enormous.
Private hospital groups cannot screen the entire population. But they can fund mobile clinics that reach communities their own facilities never will, support non-profits with the infrastructure and credibility to work at scale, and build specialist centres that explicitly include those without medical aids.
At a glance
Key Figures
Delivering care where it’s needed most
In FY2025, Life Healthcare’s Pink Drive partnership facilitated 760 mammograms, 323 cervical smears and 285 PSA screenings
Lenmed also partners with Pink Drive, reaching communities around its hospitals in historically disadvantaged areas
Life Healthcare’s Brenthurst Breast Care Centre has treated 536 patients since opening in September 2024, including 169 indigent and uninsured patients
Early detection of cancer reduces treatment costs and improves survival rates – screening is both a clinical and health-economic intervention