Generous donation to Johannesburg Hospital leads to modernized ICU facilities
PARKTOWN – A charity foundation gave it's first donation towards the renovation of a high care and ICU facility at the Johannesburg Hospital.
With the high number of trauma cases in a big city, hospitals and medical service providers have the task of providing intensive as well as high care to patients.
Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital was fortunate to receive sponsorship from Roy McAlpine Charity Foundation to renovate a high care area.
At the official handover ceremony of Area 579 at the hospital in Parktown, emcee and ICU nurse, Marubini Magoro said the expansion of the area would increase the hospital’s capacity to manage the large numbers of patients that required intensive care and to perform special surgical procedures.
Professor Mervyn Mer, a principal specialist in Critical Care and Pulmonology at the hospital said, “There are 70 ICU specialists in the whole country and only 30 are practically active practitioners. With a total of 4 500 ICU beds in the country, it shows a huge void that needs to be addressed regarding training staff.”
Head of nursing at the hospital, Martha Pule said they sometimes struggled with a lack of nurses with expertise to assist in manning the unit but such a project raised hope.
Roy McAlpine, after whom the charity foundation is named, said he had no medical background but has two sons who are medical practitioners. He extended his gratitude to the trustees of the foundation as they did a large amount of the work and said this was their first major donation as a charity but it would certainly not be the last.
CEO at Charlotte Maxeke, Gladys Bogoshi said the vision of the project included making something better, not just for the patients but the staff as well.
“Renovating an ICU can be difficult as it may need to be closed for four months for the renovation process and ICU is needed 24/7,” she said.
“However, with the availability of Area 579, we look forward to having our new ICUs equipped with modern technology and people like Roy give others hope to go forward.”
Professor Guy Richards, a healthcare practitioner at Wits said the unit would be for patients who have undergone major surgeries. “A unit like this is a good way to continue to train people. Development of an ICU itself is an improvement of the hospital as a whole. We will continue to use this in the best way possible to enhance high care not only in this hospital but the whole country.”
Details: Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital 011 488 4911.
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