Healthcare workers who go beyond their call of duty were honoured at this year’s Gauteng Health Khanyisa Service Excellence Awards.
Esteemed guest Gauteng MEC for Health Dr Gwen Ramokgopa joined health professionals from across Gauteng at Birchwood Hotel and OR Tambo Conference Centre for the awards on Friday.
The aim of the awards is to recognise health practitioners who introduce changes or programmes set to benefit their patients, in the various clinics or hospitals in the province.
The awards feature various categories, including most efficient healthcare facility, community healthcare, best mental health review board and quality improvement innovation projects.
The Occupational Health Department at Bertha Gxowa Hospital won two awards at the prestigious event.
They accepted the Best-Improved Patient Safety Unit Award under the quality improvement and innovation projects category, for their Early Childhood Intervention Programme.
“This is a project close to my heart because I have grown with it over the years and worked on its development from the early stages,” said Humaira Khan, an occupational therapist at Bertha Gxowa Hospital.
“The Early Childhood Intervention Programme was started in late 2014 and I joined the hospital in 2015, and it’s been a pleasure growing and developing this project.
“We target mothers and their babies as soon as they are born and our aim is to prevent disabilities and development issues.”
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The team makes an impact at the hospital with the programme by organising health talks in the hospital’s maternity ward and educating mothers on what to expect concerning their baby’s development.
“By targeting the babies during infancy, we are able to detect issues at an early stage and are able to prevent further complications should a disability or development issue be detected,” said Humaira.
“During our talks with mothers, we book them for a three-month check-up should we suspect that a baby is at risk of having a development problem.
“These educational talks have been beneficial because they’ve helped us identify children and parents who need our help, together we can work together in bettering the lives of the children.”
The second award received was for their Cerebral Palsy Rehabilitation and Support Groups Outreach Project.
“We started the project in 2016 when we were short-staffed and were receiving high volumes of referrals of children with cerebral palsy,” said Humaira.
“We had to manage the numbers so we sought help from our colleagues in various departments and ensured our project includes services from dieticians, social workers, occupational, speech and physiotherapists.
“It was a pilot project at the time, so we faced many trials.
“Based on the feedback we received from the parents at the end of the year we developed the programme even further.”
Later in the project, Humaira and her team found a number of mothers were not coping with their children being diagnosed with cerebral palsy and so the services of psychologists were introduced.
“The moms have an hour with the doctor, no babies are included in these sessions, and the aim is for them to deal with their emotions and mental health,” she said.
“During this time we keep the babies preoccupied with physio and speech stimulation.”
The Cerebral Palsy Rehabilitation and Support Groups Outreach Project is for children from birth to five years and 11 months old.
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Once they are over the age of six, they are referred to stimulation centres which can cater to their needs at that age and older.
“Through each project’s errors we have found that with consistency we are able to generate results and implement changes that work,” said Humaira.
“We also celebrate small milestones because it’s all the small things that will add up to the progress of each child in the end.”
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