There is an opportunity for the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa to develop a Paediatric Surgical Skills Training Laboratory to serve the region and the continent.  

As part of the upgrading and equipping of the new Operating Theatre Complex at the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital, 3 of the 8 new theatres were fully digitalised. Moving into an era of modern surgery (digitilization) has meant that surgeons need to master the use of increasingly sophisticated technology and equipment. The skills that need to be learnt cannot always be acquired safely in a live surgery setting. An advanced 10-station surgical training centre at the Hospital will facilitate the training of surgeons in the use of modern digitalised equipment and would advance multi-disciplinary endoscopic surgery skills locally and continentally but also accommodate other specialties including ENT, urology, anaesthetics, neurosurgery, etc.

As the Fundraising Arm of the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital, the Children’s Hospital Trust aims to raise in excess of R10 million needed to build and renovate the facility. An additional R10, 000,000 will be needed to equip the facility with digital equipment (this has already been pledged by Karl Storz, the German manufacturer of endoscopic equipment). This is a Gift-In-Kind donation comprising the equipment needed to run a skills laboratory with one master station and 9 training stations.

The Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital has an international reputation as a centre for excellence, and is able to deliver paediatric and surgical services equivalent to those found in developed countries. Historically it has played a significant role in assisting other African nations in improving and developing paediatric skills. The Hospital is therefore optimally situated to be a training hub for the rest of the continent.

 For more information about this project please email cht@chtrust.org.za.  

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