Groote Schuur Hospital, home to one of the busiest emergency centres in the Western Cape, desperately needs R100m in donations to help equip and make its brand new centre – planned to open in February – a reality, reports News24.
The unit has outgrown its existing small space, and dated technology, and equipment that has long exceeded its lifespan, contribute to the conditions under which medical teams work.
Doing procedures with cellphone torches and huddling around the only working computer in the trauma unit is par for the course for doctors, who hope that next year, the overcrowded rooms and antiquated machinery will be a thing of the past.
Dr Annemarie Kropman, head of the emergency unit, said as many as 120 patients could pass through its doors in just one day.
Many patients are referred for specialist treatment from the larger Cape Town area, stabilised at the emergency centre, or use the facility’s services after hours.
“Because we offer such a wide range of services, our patients can be incredibly sick because they’re coming with very complicated problems,” Kropman said.
She added that doctors were seeing more patients, not only because of increased migration to the province but because fewer patients could afford private healthcare.
“Although the services we offer have increased over the years, the emergency centre has not grown accordingly. The unit is tiny … We are trying to process 100 patients through a four-by-two-metre space to have them triaged. We are very constrained space-wise, and our equipment is really old, as well.”
A newer and bigger emergency centre would significantly benefit staff and patients.
“The new centre has been designed so patients can access a central point and flow nicely…it will be much easier and faster for staff to process patients. We will also remove the moral injury of seeing patients who don’t have access to privacy or toilets because we’re so overcrowded,” Kropman said.
The cost of construction of the new centre, already under way, has been covered by capital expenditure, but the operational cost of providing new machinery is way beyond the hospital’s budget.
Groote Schuur’s medical manager, Dr Shrikant Peters, said the new development had been in the works for 12 years.
“We’ve gone through periods of rapid extension of services. We are the only public sector hospital in the country that does lung transplants and cardiac transplants, and we also process a large load of emergency and trauma patients. With the closing of some provincial hospitals, we’ve also taken on a bigger load.”
While the current emergency centre had a capacity of 40 beds, this would increase to 54 in the new development, which, he said, “is probably about 150% the size of the old unit”.
Revenue sources
“We work on funding from different streams; the biggest is the provincial equitable share – based on the census. We also make use of grant funding. Over time, we know that the health system has been defunded globally. It’s really in the tertiary sector where we feel that the most. And we do have bigger budgets, but it does mean we will get that budget pulled when the Department of Health requires it to deliver quality primary healthcare.”
Kirsty Evans, Groote Schuur Hospital Trust’s executive director, added that the organisation was tasked with raising funds for the hospital’s operational budget, and was appealing for donations to equip the new facility.
At least R20m was needed before the February opening, she added, as well as another R80m over the next two years for radiology, ultrasounds, X-rays, and other equipment.
“Much of our machinery is old and at the end of its life. Technology moves so fast that most of it needs to be replaced, including the Lodox machine. This is the biggest and most important machine in the trauma department, and it cannot be moved, but it costs R8m,” she said.
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