Hospital Charity Organisation | Children's Hospital Trust

RAYMOND ACKERMAN’S SEVEN FIGURE BIRTHDAY GIFT TO IMPACT PAEDIATRIC HEALTHCARE IN THE WESTERN CAPE
 
Pick n Pay Founder and former Chairman, Raymond Ackerman, has donated R1 million to the Children’s Hospital Trust, the Fundraising Arm of the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital in celebration of his 80th birthday on Thursday 10 March 2011.

The seven figure donation sets the stage for the Children’s Hospital Trust’s expansion strategy to raise funds for projects outside of the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital’s doors in 2011. Research conducted by the Children’s Hospital Trust into the gaps in paediatric healthcare confirmed that needs exist outside of the Hospital which requires funding ranging from paediatric safety education to child rehabilitation.

R500 000 will be allocated to the first Trust expanded-reach fundraising project; the equipping of four METRO Emergency Medical Services (EMS) ambulances with additional specialist paediatric equipment. This will improve EMS pre-hospital and inter-hospital services rendered to Neonate and Infant patients in the Western Cape Province. The Trust will need to raise a total of R2million to fully equip four ambulances with paediatric equipment, sufficient to transport children with whatever medical support they require. EMS handles over 40 000 emergency calls monthly and facilitates 5 000 paediatric transfers yearly, including those to the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital. The service quality of ambulance transfers directly impacts the patient’s medical state upon arrival at the Hospital as well as their overall prognosis.

The remaining R500 000 will go towards building a Paediatric Infectious Diseases Clinic (PIDC) & Clinical Research Unit at the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital. The clinic will provide highly specialised treatment and care for children with infectious diseases including children with HIV who are seriously ill. The total cost to build the facility which will house the Paediatric Infectious Diseases Unit, the Clinical Research Unit, and the Occupational Health Staff Clinic is approximately R31.6million. Raymond Ackerman’s donation raises the total raised to date at R1million when added to the R500 000 donated by the New Apostolic Church. 

“One of the founding philosophies of Pick ‘n Pay, and that of our family, is “Doing good is good Business”. It is never more true than now; what you put into our children’s future, you get out. I urge all individuals and businesses in South Africa to support the Children’s Hospital Trust as they shape the future of so many children in Africa. It is not a choice but rather our responsibility to give our children a future,” says Ackerman.

The existing Paediatric Infectious Disease Unit (PIDU) is a key paediatric research hub focusing on the diseases of childhood, trains paediatricians to the level of Infectious Diseases sub-specialists, runs a large community outreach programme which involves training and mentoring community health workers and doctors and influences national and international treatment programmes and guidelines. The PIDU at the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital’s primary role is that of providing comprehensive care to children suffering from the most complex and severe infectious disease problems. The new PIDC will help them to do this more effectively, enabling patients to be treated faster thus allowing them to see and treat more children.

“The absence of a dedicated space to house all of the activities of the PIDU is problematic. The various activities within the unit are inter-related and yet take place in different parts of the Hospital, making integration, communication and ultimately patient care that much more challenging. Current outpatient facilities are not conducive to optimal care of children with HIV and do not address rapidly expanding specialised, clinical needs. What is needed is a dedicated facility to house all of the activities within a Paediatric Infectious Diseases Clinic & Clinical Research Unit,” explains Louise Driver, CEO of the Children’s Hospital Trust.

“In 2011 the Children’s Hospital Trust will continue to assist the Hospital, as it has done for the past 17 years, by raising funding to address the many pressing needs at the Hospital. The Trust will also be expanding its funding reach to projects beyond the Hospital’s doors within the Western Cape, which will broadly impact paediatric healthcare and indirectly impact patient outcomes and services to the Hospital. Mr Ackerman’s donation has given us the boost we needed to launch fundraising campaigns for these two critical services for sick children in southern Africa,” says Driver.