“Not only will this hospital save lives but it will also give children the right to be cared for and to receive medical treatment irrespective of their social or economic status.”
|||Four years ago, former President Nelson Mandela sat on a red couch inside a marquee erected at the Parktown Wits Medical School and was surrounded by excited young faces. The public and media were also there to witness the momentous occasion.
At the time, the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund had just announced its plan to establish a children’s hospital and revealed that a portion of the medical school was the suitable venue for the hospital. What then seemed like a dream to many is now slowly becoming a reality.
Speaking to the Saturday Star, the foundation’s corporate communications manager Oupa Ngwenya said a series of plans were afoot to get the hospital up and ready for its grand opening in 2014.
According to Ngwenya, R1 billion is needed to build the state-of-the-art healthcare facility while costs to operate the hospital would be R420 million a year.
“To make this dream possible we need the buy in of government and the assistance of various stakeholders and corporate companies,” he said.
So far, the Nelson Mandela Children’s fund donated R42m to the project while the DG Murray Trust pledged R50m for construction. The hospital will also be run in partnership with government and Wits.
Ngwenya said in May this year an event would be held where companies could pledge their support for the hospital project.
In August, a ground-work ceremony is also expected to be held with construction beginning thereafter. In her report, the hospital’s chairman Graça Machel said with nearly 450 million children and only four children’s hospitals in Africa, the demand for a specialised paediatric hospital was profound.
“Millions of children in Africa suffer from life-threatening illnesses and have little chance of receiving specialised care. Their survival depends on being able to access and afford these rare healthcare facilities and services,” Michel said.
She said the challenge to establish a hospital was immense, adding one of her husband’s wishes was to establish a state-of-the-art hospital for the children of Southern Africa.
“Not only will this hospital save lives but it will also give children the right to be cared for and to receive medical treatment irrespective of their social or economic status.”
The hospital will provide 200 beds to patients with a planned expansion to 300 beds at a later stage.
The Fund highlighted that the hospital was a referral hospital for patients across the country and patients within the Southern African Development Community region.
But the fund stressed that no patient would be turned away due to lack of funding, adding that sickly children were assured optimum access to specialised paediatric care.
In addition, various committees have been put in place and the hospital has been registered. Ngwenya said in the four years the team had various gaps to fill ranging from registration to the hospital design and conducting a geographical study of the site.
The bid to design the hospital was granted and has been facilitated by United Kingdom architecture firm Sheppard and local firms Reuben Reddy and Gapp Architects and Urban Designers. The hospital will also include six centres of excellence namely the craniofacial, neurosis, cardiothoracic, haematology and oncology as well as renal pulmonology and general paediatric surgery.
In a letter to the organisation, International Relations and Co-operation Minister Maite-Nkoana Mashabane said health care was a serious challenge facing developing countries, particularly African countries adding the organisation’s decision to extend its health care to SADC countries would be a major contribution to the regional continental efforts to improve health care.
Women, Children and People with Disabilities Minister Lulu Xingwana said the initiative to champion a hospital centred around child health care marked a turning point on how Africa viewed its children.
Mandela is quoted saying: “A dedicated children’s hospital will be a credible demonstration of the commitment of African leaders to place the rights of children at the forefront. Nothing less would be enough.”
Saturday Star