R1-billion Nelson Mandela Children's Hospital to admit first patient in 2016

28th May 2015

By: Creamer Media Reporter

  

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From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, this is the Real Economy Report. A year after first breaking ground on the 238-bed, eight-theatre Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital, in Parktown, the Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital Trust, or NMCHT, continues to advance construction of the legacy project with a view to admitting its first young patient in the first half of next year. Natalie Greve attended a recent tour of the development to check up on its progress.

Natalie Greve:
Located on land gifted by the University of the Witwatersrand Education Campus and lying adjacent to the Wits Medical School and the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital, the paediatric facility would, once completed, become the fifth facility of its kind on the continent and only the second in South Africa, alongside the Red Cross Children’s Hospital, in Cape Town.

In line with government’s Modernisation of Tertiary Services plan, the hospital would house several speciality centres, including a haematology and oncology unit, a cardiology and cardiothoracic surgery, a neurosciences unit, a renal unit, a pulmonology unit, a craniofacial unit and a general paediatric surgery unit.

Once operational, it would also serve as a paediatric and medical training facility.

While not a Green Star South Africa-rated project, primary contractor Group 5 said it had complied with all local regulations regarding energy efficiency when modeling and designing the hospital’s heating, ventilation and air conditioning system.

Group 5 Building MD Tim Nicholls told Engineering News Online during a tour of the site earlier this month that the hospital would be structurally complete by the end of the year before being commissioned in the first few months of next year.

Group 5 Building MD Tim Nicholls

Natalie Greve:
Any operational costs that were related to the care of public patients would be funded by the Department of Health, while private patients would be funded by medical aid funds and patients from the Southern African Development Community through the provisions of bilateral agreements.

NMCHF trustee and project lead Joe Seolane told journalists during the tour that he hoped the establishment of the hospital, which could be expanded to an up to 300-bed facility within 5 years, would serve as a catalyst for the development of paediatric facilities elsewhere in the region.

NMCHF trustee and project lead Joe Seolane

Natalie Greve:
NMCHT CEO Bongi Mkhabela added that an expansion of healthcare facilities for children in Africa would engender the “living legacy” of former Statesman Nelson Mandela, enabling each child that passed though its doors to experience the spirit of the struggle icon.

NMCHT CEO Bongi Mkhabela

Shannon de Ryhove:
Other news making headlines this week: Yet another use for South Africa’s Lodox scanner; and The Department of Telecommunications and Postal Services allocates R200-million for the first phast of the broadband rollout.

Within a decade conventional invasive autopsies may be a rarity,with pathologists instead using imaging technologies to conduct virtual post-mortems.  Such an advance will be welcome in busy morgues in resource-poor countries like South Africa.

University of Pretoria  Senior lecturer Dr Janette Verster

Video courtesy of the  University of Pretoria

The Department of Telecommunications and Postal Services has set aside R200-million of its R1.4-billion budget this year to kickstart the first phase of the South Africa Connect national broadband strategy.

Telecommunications and Postal Services Deputy Minister Professor Hlengiwe Mkhize

That’s Creamer Media’s Real Economy Report. Join us again next week for more news and insight into South Africa’s real economy.

Edited by Shannon de Ryhove
Contributing Editor

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