Name and Location
Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital (NMCH).

Location
The NMCH is located in Parktown, Johannesburg, South Africa, on property donated to the NMCH Trust by the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits).

Client
NMCH Trust.

Project Description
The hospital has 200 beds and ten theatres and can treat up to 2 500 patients a month. The top floor of the hospital has 27 rooms to ensure that parents can stay with their children.

The building incorporates several green building aspects, including the recycling and storage of rainwater, and using natural light and ventilation.

The NMCH will be South Africa’s second children’s hospital after the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital in Cape Town, in the Western Cape.

Jobs to be Created
Not stated.

Value
R1-billion.

Duration
The hospital was launched in December 2016, and is set to open its doors in February 2017.

Latest Developments
The NMCH was launched on December 2. Built over two years, the hospital will host a number of centres of excellence for paediatric care.

This includes the cardiology and cardiothoracic surgery ward, an oncology and haemotology ward, a renal ward, a pulmonology ward, general paediatric surgery, a craniofacial ward and a neurosciences ward.

The hospital, while not focused on emergency cases, has an emergency ward with four beds. Here, children will be stabilised and then transferred to another hospital for further care.

Wits vice-chancellor Adam Habib has said that the hospital will act as a training ground for "some of the best peadiatric specialists". The hospital will tackle the paediatric skills shortage in the country. South Africa has only ten registered paeditratic cardiologists and only seven paediatric oncologists. 

The hospital is only the fifth of its kind on the continent.

The facility, which was funded, among others, by the Industrial Development Corporation, is set to open its doors in February 2017.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
Sheppard Robson International, John Cooper Architecture, GAPP Architects & Urban Designers and Reuben Reddy Architects (hospital design) and Group Five (construction contract).

On Budget and on Time?
Not stated.

Contact Details for Project Information
NMCH Trust, Pat van der Merwe, tel +27 11 274 5600 or email pat@nmch.co.za  or Vuyo Lutseke, tel +27 11 274 5656 or email vuyo@nmch.co.za.