Mandela Children’s Hospital takes root
‘THERE can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.”
These were the words of the late statesman Nelson Mandela, in a heartfelt call for the country to protect and love its children. Mandela seemingly lived up to his words by founding the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund, which initiated the process to build the Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital, the construction of which began in 2014. The hospital, in Parktown, Joburg, which is celebrating its oneyear anniversary this month, is a R1 billion, 200-bed specialist paediatric facility with the stated aim of providing family and child-centred care to people in the Southern African region. It is only the second specialist paediatric hospital in the region, after the Red Cross Children’s Hospital in Cape Town.
Dr Mandisa Maholwana, the hospital’s chief executive, enthused about the honour she had of being entrusted with bringing Mandela’s dream to fruition in the one year she had been at the helm of the hospital. She said the hospital had about 200 staff members, among whom were 20 paediatric specialists.
“As you can appreciate, we are a super specialist facility. The country as a whole does not have enough specialists from doctors to nurses. So, we will continue to recruit at an acceptable pace so that we can... deliver more services to the children.”
Any child from birth to the age of 16 who had been referred correctly to the hospital would be taken care of, regardless of their parents’ financial position, Maholwana said.
She said 16 was the age limit for patients but children over that age who had previously undergone certain treatment at the hospital could continue to be admitted. In the first year of operations the hospital had been rolling out services in phases, such as opening radiology, cardiology and neurosurgery units as well as introducing renal services.
Maholwana said the establishment of these critical units – some of which, including the neurosurgery unit, were opened ahead of schedule – had brought pride to her and her team.“For us to be able to open our ICU and start assisting... newborns to slightly older children, this has been a serious achievement for us. I am a mother myself and love children, like any other mother. If my child was sick, I would want to make sure that they got the best healthcare – even if one couldn’t afford it.” Her views were echoed by Sandra Nchabeleng, a professional nurse in the ICU unit.
When interviewed, Nchabeleng was lovingly attending to a six-day-old baby girl, who had been in ICU for five days after arriving at the hospital with a severe breathing disorder.“I love my work and I do get affected when I have to deal with cases such as these because I treat the children as if they were my own,” she said.
Maholwana said the hospital planned to roll out more services, but would not reach the capacity of major academic hospitals.
“But we want to be able to say that in those areas where we provide services, we can demonstrate excellence and contribute to changing mindsets in terms of research work.
“We want to contribute towards the knowledge pool within South Africa and, possibly, the continent too. As much as Tata Madiba set out to have a children’s hospital, we can all extend his dream to say that we contribute to Africa’s children.”