New Bara clinic allows parents to sleep over
Expense of commuting will be the first cost saver
Lusanda Gumede has made more than 40 daily trips to Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital to care for her three-week-old son who was born with breathing complications.
“He cannot breathe on his own, and it has been expensive for me to come here,” she said.
But now Gumede and other parents whose children are admitted to the hospital will be able to sleep over at the newly built Paediatric Anorectal and Stomatic Clinic. The R16-million clinic will specialise in surgical operations and the recovery of about 130 children up to the age of 10. It will also be able to admit about 1 500 children as out-patients.
Gumede, who spends 11 hours at the hospital daily, said: “When I spend time with him daily he will get better sooner.”
Another excited mother, Grania Mkhalo, whose child was also admitted for breathing problems, said the eight days she spent at the hospital had taken their toll.
“I cannot make the 6am breastfeeding because I live far [Williers Farm]. I must pump for him before I leave,” she said.
Mkhalo, who spends R30 daily on transport, feared that she would not always have the money to come to the hospital.
“I see him only for 15 minutes every few hours. I have lost a lot of weight,” she said.
Karabo Khumalo, a mother of a oneweek-old premature baby, said the clinic would help cut her transportation costs.
Clinic founder Professor Jerome Loveland said children recovered quicker when their parents were with them.