Hospital Charity Organisation | Children's Hospital Trust

The new Surgical Skills Training Centre opened at the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital on Wednesday, 22 June 2011.This Centre is the first of its kind in sub-Saharan Africa to offer training in paediatric Endoscopic Surgery.

In just 18 months, the Children’s Hospital Trust raised the R13.8million needed to build and equip this high technology Training Centre,which will train surgeons in adult and paediatric Endoscopic (Minimally Invasive) Surgery, general surgery and complimentary specialties.

Previously, the absence of paediatric endoscopic surgical training centres in sub-Saharan Africa, forced African paediatric specialists and surgeons to travel to Europe or the United States for training.
Since the building of the state-of-the-art Operating Theatre Complex with digital facilities at the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital, this new 9-station Surgical Skills Training Centre is ideally placed to develop and improve Endoscopic Surgery skills, locally and on the African continent.

The benefits of having Minimally Invasive Surgery are less operative pain and infection risk, a shorter hospital stay and faster recovery with less scarring. During Endoscopic Surgery, an endoscope, which is a long, rigid tube with a camera and light attached, is used. The device is inserted into the body through a small incision and the surgeon views the image displayed on a monitor.The surgeon also makes other small incisions to insert instruments necessary to do the surgical procedure. Increasingly, minimal access surgery is becoming the gold standard and conventional large incision surgery will soon be regarded as obsolete. A training centre such as this allows our surgeons of the future to be at the forefront of current surgical practice.

These skills cannot always be safely acquired in a live surgery setting on patients, and this Centre will give training surgeons an opportunity to refine their surgical skills and experienced surgeons, an opportunity to transfer their knowledge and skills to other hospitals. This Centre will also offer hands-on training courses at various levels in specialties such as Anaesthetics, ENT, Neurosurgery and Urology.

Letter from Prof Alp Numonoglu (Head of Paediatric Surgery) to Louise Driver (CEO of the Children's Hospital Trust) after the opening: 

Western Cape Minister of Health, Theuns Botha, expressed the Western Cape Department of Health’s gratitude to the many donors who have donated towards this project, which offers the combination of state-of-the-art breakthrough technology together with the opportunity to train new surgeons. The Red Cross War Memorial Children's Hospital has become a national resource and has an international reputation as a centre for excellence, in its ability to deliver paediatric and surgical services equivalent to those found in developed countries. The Children’s Hospital Trust has been fundraising for the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital for more than 17 years, ensuring that the Hospital remains at the forefront of paediatric care.

While the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital will always remain the Children’s Hospital Trust’s main priority, the Trust has now expanded its fundraising reach to also raise funds for projects beyond the Hospital, to address needs within paediatric healthcare in the Western Cape.

Karl Storz Endoscopy, German manufacturers of endoscopic equipment, has donated millions of rands in equipment needed for this new facility, which houses one master station and eight training stations in the University of Cape Town’s Institute of Child Health building, based at the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital. Surgeons will use this equipment to master the use of increasingly sophisticated technology and learn the advanced surgical procedures.

Dear Louise,

I will be leaving early tomorrow for overseas and I could not have
chance to personally say thank you to you and the team after the opening
ceremony.
As it has been in the past with previous projects once again Trust has
made it possible to realise such a wonderful facility not just for the
hospital but for many other health care workers from many other
institutions. Without the dedication, hard work and vision of Trust this could not
have been achieved.I would like to thank you and your team in trust for so passionately
working towards making Red Cross Hospital a facility not as good as
other centres but way above other.

Best wishes
Alp