Although the looming NHI has around 40% of medical personnel threatening to leave the country, 36 of South Africa’s top medical experts are committed to staying here, investing their own money in a new R700m private surgical hospital in Johannesburg.
Among those who will work at the new Johannesburg Surgical Hospital (JSH) in Northcliff are physicians, orthopaedic surgeons, plastic surgeons, vascular surgeons, cardiothoracic surgeons and neurosurgeons, cardiologists, urologists, radiologists, a neurologist and a nephrologist, reports News24.
All of them are shareholders in the scheme, says orthopaedic specialist Dr Jaco Strobos, who obtained the licence for the hospital in 2019, and who’s long harboured a dream to start a private specialist surgical hospital where doctors themselves decide on the type of equipment and treatment they want to use for the best outcomes.
The facility will open in September, with 150 beds and 13 modern operating theatres, said Alex Daneel, hospital manager, with some of the most advanced equipment, scanners and digital systems on the continent, as well as a sophisticated radiology department; emergency, intensive care and high care units; pathology services and its own laundry.
A second building is expected to open early next year. This medical complex, which is being built at a cost of R180m, will house oncology, dialysis, nuclear medicine and rehabilitation clinics, as well as frail-care for permanent or temporary accommodation after surgery.
Strobos said plans were in the pipeline for a third building, worth R230m, to increase the total number of beds to 200.
Douglas Ramaphosa, brother of President Cyril Ramaphosa and a partner of Strobos, will serve as the JSH chairperson.
The specialists own 75% of the operating company. No doctor owns more than 5%, to prevent any one person being able to sell the hospital, Strobos added.
Different classes of shares have been issued so that health professionals, including GPs and physiotherapists, can also own them.
On the issue of the impending NHI, Strobos said: “I don’t lose sleep over what’s negative or what I can’t change. There will always be sickness and people will need medical care, and we believe that, even with NHI, there’ll be a need for collaboration with the JSH because of our specialist fields.”
The JSH will be one of few hospitals in SA to have two hybrid operating theatres, where diagnostic imaging systems and cardiac catheterisation will be integrated into the theatre for specialist neurological and cardiac procedures. This will enable cardiac and vascular specialists, as well as radiologists, to work in an environment where 3D images indicate specific areas for surgery.
As a community hospital, the JSH will also deal with emergencies like heart attacks, strokes and cancer, and refer patients to specialists.
Strobos said he had always wanted to start a university for the training of young doctors and the JSH would offer such training.
With all of its advanced technology and as a Siemens reference site, there is already interest from several African countries for training and partnerships with the JSH.
The hospital’s initial target is 30% bed occupancy per month, to gradual increase to about 50% per month in the first year. The operating models have been tested so that the hospital breaks even on a monthly bed occupancy of less than 30.
News24 article – Doctors vow to stay in SA despite NHI introduction (Restricted access)
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