Super specialists to the rescue

Full package for hospital in Mthatha

SEVEN new “super specialists” have been hired by the department of health and are stationed at Nelson Mandela Academic Hospital in Mthatha.

The hospital’s CEO Nomalanga Makwedini yesterday told the Saturday Dispatch that the department had managed to snatch some of the super specialists from big hospitals like Groote Schuur in the Western Cape and Baragwanath in Gauteng.

The doctors are called “super specialists” because they have specialised in more than one field.

“Nelson Mandela Academic Hospital have been working hard to provide a full package. We want to reach our targets in being a fullyfledged central hospital.

“Having the super specialists means greater coverage for the hospital, which is the only central hospital in the province.

“This will save the province money as we will no longer have to transfer that many patients to other provinces.

“Instead, we can treat them here,” Makwedini said.

The department’s new appointees are:

Dr Busi Mrharha, who is an anaesthetist and intensivist (specialised ICU care);

Dr Thozama Dubula, a physician and rheumatologist (cardiac problems);

Dr Khulile Moeketsi, physician and cardiologist;

Dr Lonwabo Nxeweni, orthopaedic surgeon;

Dr Buhle Makhongwana, pediatrician and infectious diseases specialist;

Dr Martha Meyer, pediatrician and neonatologist (newborn and premature babies); and

Professor Charles Myathaza, an ear, nose and throat specialist.

Makwedini said the Eastern Cape would no longer have to send patients to other provinces for cochlear or pacemaker implants.

“Those services are now available in the province. We will not do heart transplants just yet though.

“The department is also pleased with its R28-million purchase of cath lab equipment to visualise the arteries and chambers of the heart and treat any abnormality found,” Makwedini added.

She said backlogs in the orthopaedics department had been reduced as Nxeweni was in partnership with Pretoria-based Professor Mthunzi Ngcelwene to do spinal surgery on two Fridays a month.

“We previously referred spinal patients to Inkosi Albert Luthuli Central Hospital in KwaZulu-Natal.” — siyab@dispatch.co.za