Hospital Charity Organisation | Children's Hospital Trust

 Saturday Surgeries at the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital has made an enormous impact in alleviating the Hospital’s extensive list of patients awaiting life changing surgical procedures. This R265 000 project has been funded by Mediclinic Southern Africa, with the Hospital carrying costs for consumables, theatres and inpatient care. Western Cape Government: Health Minister, Mr Theuns Botha, visited patients who benefited from this initiative on Saturday, November 12.

The Saturday Surgeries initiative commenced on 22 October and will end on 10 December 2011. The eight weeks have been divided into three weeks for ENT surgery and five weeks for general surgery. This amounts to a total of 71 clinical cases being cleared from the Hospital’s surgical waiting list. Such procedures are normally performed as a day surgery, with no overnight stay being needed in most patients.
 
Elective surgery is not usually conducted over weekends at the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital but the Surgical Waiting List Initiative provides an extra day of surgery for eight weeks, making use of existing recuperation space and services at the Hospital, ordinarily not used on Saturdays.

“The idea is that once a big volume of these non-emergency cases are taken off the waiting list, there would be scope for more flexibility for theatre lists during the week. More complex cases which are also a priority could then be given some additional time created by the reduction in the waiting lists,” said Dr Anita Parbhoo, Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital manager of medical services.

As the fundraisers for the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital and paediatric healthcare in the Western Cape, the Children’s Hospital Trust undertook the Hospital’s proposal to raise funds to decrease their long surgical waiting lists. Mediclinic Southern Africa has partnered with the Trust to provide a service that is having a ripple effect on minimising waiting lists and preventing the follow-on effect of prolonged delays, where less critical clinical cases can lead to more serious medical complications if postponed.

“At the roll-out of this project, the waiting list for these patients extended well into 2012 – with an average eight-month wait. The success thus far has resulted in theatre bookings done now for January 2012, instead of seven or eight months later and no overnight stays have been necessary,” says Louise Driver, CEO of the Children’s Hospital Trust. “Mediclinic Southern Africa has been a loyal donor of the Children’s Hospital Trust for the past 7 years and we are so appreciative that they’ve come on board to fund this very special project.”

Western Cape Minister of Health, Theuns Botha, says, "This partnership will result in life-changing surgeries which will bring physical comfort to a great many children and their families. The project will also reduce the general paediatric surgeries backlog significantly.”

“We are grateful to Mediclinic for donating the funds to make this pilot project a reality and to the Children’s Hospital Trust, Hosptial staff and clinical staff who will be making it a reality.”

“Mediclinic Southern Africa believes in a progressive approach to the delivery of improved healthcare in South Africa and as such our CSI programme is an important part of achieving that objective. This joint venture with a world-class paediatric facility dedicated to providing affordable treatment for children in need is part of our tier one CSI platform, which comprises partnering with public hospitals to provide access to quality healthcare to a broader section of our society,” adds Dr Mvula Yoyo, Transformation Executive: Mediclinic.

“The Children’s Hospital Trust’s intention is to continue fundraising for additional waiting list reduction initiatives next year, similar to the ‘Saturday Surgeries’ model, to impact on other surgical specialities such as spinal injuries, eye and plastic surgeries, where long waiting lists exist.”
 
Minister Botha said that this was exactly in line with the Western Cape Government: Health’s future strategy: “We hope to expand this project to include Tygerberg Children's Hospital and later, general surgeries across a variety of our facilities. I wish the team well and eagerly await the positive benefits to our young patients and their families."

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