More than 11 000 residents in Ballito, KZN have signed a petition in protest against Netcare’s Alberlito Hospital announcing it was closing overnight paediatric, neonatal and maternity facilities.
Netcare said dwindling demand had led to the closure of the “resource-intensive overnight paediatric and neonatal intensive care unit as well as obstetric facilities”, according to TimesLIVE.
Specialist doctors affected have been offered practising privileges at other Netcare facilities, said Sara Nayager, manager of Netcare’s KZN hospital division. “The emergency department will continue to welcome children and families and care for their urgent medical needs, and paediatric day procedures will remain in place.”
Netcare plans to replace the maternity, neonatal and paediatric units with an 80-bed mental health service for adolescents and adults, saying such a facility is in short supply.
Nayager said more than 80% of the care provided to paediatric patients at Alberlito will be “unaffected by the changes planned to start in May next year”.
“The lower paediatric admissions in our facilities reflect global trends towards treating children on an outpatient basis wherever possible and speaks to ethical paediatric practice as opposed to over-servicing,” she said.
“Netcare has been subsidising these unsustainable units for years to keep the hospital afloat and continue providing healthcare at this facility. After many attempts to make the units more sustainable over the years, including discussions with doctors and other stakeholders, we were forced to consider the impact this scenario is having on the overall sustainability of the hospital, which has been running at a loss over many years due, in part, to these underperforming and resource-intensive units.”
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