Community based education (CBE) is an important part of the Faculty of Health Sciences' programme to promote and implement a Primary Health Care (PHC) approach. And the Faculty's involvement at the primary level is nothing new - click here for a few examples of PHC hereof.

Community based education crucially draws attention to the health needs of whole communities - in contrast to the inevitable focus on the selected groups of patients who are treated at tertiary or even secondary hospitals.

The Faculty of Health Sciences (FHS) has in place - and is in the process of developing further - a number of community based teaching and learning sites that have as their 'hubs' community health centres administered by the Provincial Government of the Western Cape's Department of Health. Click here for a list of these 'lead' sites as well as a list of many of the other health facilities, organisations and communities in which UCT Health Sciences students undertake practice or service learning.

The primary role of these sites within the Faculty's programmes is to train future healthcare professionals in the "service-learning-research interrelationship", bringing them into close proximity with some of the sorts of communities in which they are likely in future to provide a service. Through such interaction students can deepen their understanding of community needs, learn how to use resources efficiently to address these needs and form partnerships to promote the health of individuals and communities.

Embedded within the framework of a PHC approach, the community based education programme of the Health Sciences Faculty is made possible through partnerships between UCT, Government Health Services (national, provincial and municipal) and communities - partnerships based on mutual respect, co-operation and mutual benefit.

Read more about the benefits of the Faculty of Health Sciences' community based education programme to the key stakeholders involved.

Read more about the Faculty of Health Science's vision of what needs to be achieved and where community based education fits into this.