Comrades Marathon athletes suspended

Runners take part in the 89km Comrades Marathon between Pietermaritzburg and Durban on June 10, 2018.The annual ultra marathon this year attracted over 20,000 runners from around the world.
RAJESH JANTILAL / AFP

Comrades Finish Medical Facility to include pre-hospital ICU

The Comrades Marathon, the oldest and largest ultramarathon in the world, is well underway with its healthcare support preparations. 

Comrades Marathon athletes suspended

Runners take part in the 89km Comrades Marathon between Pietermaritzburg and Durban on June 10, 2018.The annual ultra marathon this year attracted over 20,000 runners from around the world.
RAJESH JANTILAL / AFP

The Comrades Marathon, the oldest and largest ultramarathon in the world, is well underway with its healthcare support preparations. 

As part of the integrated medical management activities taking place behind the scenes of this worldwide sporting event, doctors, paramedics, nurses, and volunteers from several organizations, including the Netcare Group, are working together to support the race.

Netcare partner with the Comrades

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“Netcare has been a medical partner to the Comrades Marathon for the past 22 years, and this celebrated race requires a medical team from all over South Africa to provide for the wide ranging medical needs of the thousands of runners putting their fitness and endurance to the test,” says Mande Toubkin, Netcare’s general manager emergency, trauma, transplant and corporate social investment.

“We consider it an honour to be providing 156 healthcare workers and 35 emergency vehicles, including helicopter emergency medical services, for this 96th edition of the race,” adds Shalen Ramduth, operations director of Netcare 911.

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The second straight ‘down run’ from Pietermaritzburg City Hall to Hollywoodbets Kingsmead Stadium in eThekwini takes centre stage on Sunday 11 June this year. 

Comrades Marathon
A total of 2 354 international runners from 84 countries are expected to take to the start line for this year’s Comrades Marathon. Photo: Muzi Ntombela/BackpagePix

Netcare 911 will offer first aid to runners at key points throughout the course and during the especially taxing last leg to the finish line.

Longstanding aid

Dr Jeremy Boulter, the race doctor for the Comrades Marathon Association (CMA), has been in charge of organizing the CMA’s extensive supplies for the medical, emergency, first aid, and physiotherapy needs of participants for the past 43 years.

“We start working a year in advance for the next year’s race. This year, there are 17 920 qualified entrants and the sheer scale of the event requires careful logistics, planning and team work of the Comrades Marathon Medical Facility, which has been described as the largest temporary medical facility outside of a conflict zone anywhere in the world.”

Comrades Finish Medical Facility to feature pre-hospital intensive care unit

Since 1977, the Comrades Marathon has included the Comrades Finish Medical Facility, which now additionally incorporates a Netcare pre-hospital intensive care unit.

“This year the medical team will comprise 10 emergency medicine specialists, 25 emergency medicine registrars from the University of the Witwatersrand and UKZN Medical faculties, doctors from the private sector, about 75 Netcare and other nurses, and roughly 25 general assistants. We will also have a mini laboratory to enable us to perform essential blood tests, provided by Ampath laboratories, as well as Netcare 911 emergency medical practitioners, physiotherapists and volunteers,” Dr Boulter said.

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