GALLERY: Gift of the Givers opens upgraded doctors’ accommodation at Bhisho Hospital

The Gift of the Givers will hold an official opening of the upgraded accommodation for medical staff at the Bhisho Hospital in the Eastern Cape on Monday.

According to the non-profit organisation, the hospital has been losing out on interns and community service doctors partly due to a lack of suitable on-site accommodation.

The upgraded accommodation, which cost R3 million, was completed in a month, with Gift of the Givers building team working through Christmas and the new year period.

The organisation is considering another building for refurbishment at the hospital to increase capacity to deal with Covid-19.

ALSO READ: Eastern Cape Covid-19 state a ‘crisis of epic proportions’, says Gift of the Givers

“Our expression of gratitude to Sister Phumla Mnyanda, CEO of the hospital, and the Eastern Cape Department of Health for extending their full co-operation in permitting the upgrade of this facility. Medical personnel living in guest houses since the beginning of the year will take occupation this week,” founder Imtiaz Sooliman said.

The refurbishment in Bhisho comes after Gift of the Givers set up a 120-bed dedicated Covid-19 facility at the hospital, providing beds, mattresses, pillows, linen, High Flow Nasal Oxygen machines, CPAP machines, scrubs, non-contact thermometers, pulse oximeters and general PPE.

This after another renovation at Settlers Hospital in Makhanda where a 20-bed dedicated Covid-19 high care facility was set up at a cost of R750,000 and was completed in five days.

Gift of the Givers has already delivered 2,000 CPAP machines, valued at R25 million, to six provinces nationwide.

See the process of the refurbishment in pictures below:

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