As the biggest hospital of the Southern Hemisphere, the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital has the largest department for children in the southern area. Their Pediatric Department treats more than 59,000 children a year. A particular problem in this department that they are currently facing is that the dialysis cubicle where children receive their patients is not big enough to handle the expanding treatments that Chris Hani Baragwanath needs to give their patients.
The SAME Foundation is currently raising R1.5 Million towards a Pediatric project for this hospital. We are fundraising to establish a completely new three-bed dialysis cubicle within one of their Pediatric Units. This will allow their capacity to increase, increase the quality of the care, and improve the recovery times for the children.
Leratong Hospital is a flagship project of SAME since 2011. The hospital serves a catchment area of over 1.2 million people. Over the years, the Foundation has made an immense improvement to healthcare delivery at the hospital, completely renovating and equipping areas such as Accident & Emergency, Walk-in Casualty and Trauma Unit (2012), the Maternity unit (2013/2014), a Paediatric unit (2011/2015), the Neonatal unit (2013) and the Antenatal Clinic. This continues our long-term project giving quality healthcare to communities that need it the most.
Recently, the Foundation has seen that Leratong hospital’s paediatric unit often runs at over capacity. This causes a crisis situation where there are more children than the hospital has equipment for. Children often had to share equipment, which created a threat of cross-infection and disease outbreaks. The facility was aged and urgently needed infrastructure modernisation and vital medical equipment. SAME Foundation completely renovated and equipped the Paediatric Ward (Ward 3). It helped as an exceptional area to alleviate the pressure of over-capacity, reduce cross-infection and deliver exceptional healthcare to children in the community.
The Sterkfontein Psychiatric Hospital, in Krugersdorp, serves as a referral centre for most central, regional and district hospitals in southern Gauteng and parts of the North-West province. Used as a training institute for Wits University, University of Johannesberg, North West University, and more, Sterkfontein sees hundreds of patients for treatment and rehabilitation. This hospital needed the proper facilities to offer full treatment and a positive atmosphere for its patients.
The Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) partnered with the Foundation to complete a brand new Occupational and sports facilities worth R3 Million at the hospital. The renovations and equipping encompassed a new Occupational Therapy library and media centre, restaurant, kitchen, tuckshop, and a multi-purpose sports facility including a new soccer field, athletics track, tennis and netball court, clubhouse, change rooms and ablution facilities. The project was officially opened in October 2018 to mark Mental Health Awareness Month.
Mental Health care is often overlooked, and our Foundation is strategically focused on the need to equip similar facilities to Sterkfontein Psychiatric Hospital.
Tembisa Provincial Tertiary Hospital is situated in Tembisa, Gauteng. The immediate communities that the hospital serves are Midrand and Diepsloot, but it is also a referral hospital to 20 clinics in the greater region spanning three municipalities. As a tertiary hospital, the facility is used to train our future doctors and nurses. Annually the hospital sees over 280 000 patients, with more than 60 000 going through the casualty unit. Approximately 13 000 surgical out-patients are treated here every year.
The space used for wound care was too small, and resulted in infectious and non-infectious patients sitting and being treated in the same room. This caused cross infection and was extremely traumatic for the children who were treated here. Statistics showed that the spreading of diseases was increasing, and that critical factor was entirely preventable with a proper, well-equipped Surgical Wound Care Unit.
The SAME Foundation, in 2017, was able to establish a brand new OPD Surgical Wound Care Clinic on site through extensive renovations and provided necessary equipment. The new unit was divided into a paediatric unit, an infectious wound care unit, and a non-infectious wound care unit.
Kalafong Hospital is a tertiary hospital situated in Attridgeville and services an estimated 2 million people. With the massive proliferation of informal settlements in our catchment area, together with the change in disease profile mainly to the burden of HIV/AIDS, the patient load has increased. Key health problems include HIV/AIDS, TB, chronic non communicable disease, trauma and violence.
The major problem with the Hospital is the Accident & Emergency Unit which is too small to handle the patient load. The unit saw over 4000 patients a month and around 300 of these patients had to be resuscitated. Our doctors had a very short time to stabilize and save a patient, but without the correct medical equipment this was impossible.
The aim of the Foundation was to look at improving infrastructure and fully equipping the unit. In 2013 to 2014, the Foundation revitalised and converted the unit into a fully equipped resuscitation area with eight beds for children and six beds for adults. We also developed a fully equipped isolation room. In 2015, in partnership with Barloworld Equipment, the Foundation also handed over two ventilators to the unit.
Itireleng CHC renders comprehensive primary health care services to the communities of Dobsinville and the nearby Braam Fisherville communities. The facility serves a growing population and was initially build to serve only a population of 56,000. With the increasingly growing population nearby of over 46, 000 in 2013, the facility saw a remarkable increase of clients. The facility was planning to increase access to emergency care after hours, however due to space constraints and no proper emergency unit to render the service from, the planning was delayed.
The SAME Foundation partnered with TRUWORTHS, who gave R2.2 million towards the hospital. In 2013 this clinic was fully renovated and equipped with a 2 bedded resuscitation unit, the first for the community it serves.
The SAME Foundation renovated a unit for the Professors and Registrars, including a computer centre for research. On Mandela Day (July 17 2012), this unit was opened by the Premier and MEC Health.
The SAME Foundation worked with the Chiawelo Clinic in Soweto on a 5 million rand project. The Foundation turned the 8 hour Casualty unit into a “24 hour Accident and Emergency Unit”. Full renovations and restructuring was performed while also new equipment was supplied.
The SA Medical and Education Foundation was able to do a complete renovation of the reception area and fully equip the Accident & Emergency Unit at Pholosong Hospital.