Excellence centre in cardiac surgery

AFRICA’S FIRST: BLAAUWBERG HOSPITAL LEADS THE WAY

Facility will train doctors involved in critical care to deliver advanced life support.

The first training centre of excellence in Africa for advanced life support after cardiac surgery has been opened at Netcare Blaauwberg Hospital in Cape Town.

The hospital was recognised by Cardiac Advanced Life Support (CALS-S) UK, an international training organisation with offices in the UK, as a centre of excellence for training healthcare professionals involved in critical care, to enable them to deliver specialised advanced life support to patients who had undergone cardiac surgery.

Minimally invasive and keyhole cardiothoracic surgeon, Dr Johan van der Merwe, who heads the Atlantic Cardiovascular and Thoracic Institute (ACTI) at Blaauwberg Hospital, said: “Thousands of cardiac operations are successfully performed in South Africa every year and although most patients recover without incident, a small number do suffer cardiac arrest after surgery. “An immediate, coordinated and efficient response by the multidisciplinary critical care team to manage incidents of cardiac arrest can have a significant impact on these patients’ outcomes.”

The internationally endorsed CSU-ALS course equips healthcare professionals to apply highly specialised clinical protocols that aim to prevent, identify, and immediately treat cardiac arrest after surgery to save the patient’s life, all within a very short timeframe.

With the help of innovative partners around the world, including Netcare, CALS-S aims to make cardiac surgery safer through reducing the incidence of cardiac arrest after surgery and increasing the chances of survival when it does occur.

Blaauwberg Hospital, with ACTI, has been licenced by CALS-S to train the local healthcare professionals in the CSU-ALS course. The cardiac surgical critical care team at the hospital will host and give the course twice a year as part of the hospital and institute’s commitment to advanced patient-centred cardiac care and ongoing education.

The first CSU-ALS course in Africa was facilitated by CALS-S at Blaauwberg Hospital late last year. Nineteen healthcare professionals from the hospital and various other hospitals completed the training, building expertise in this highly specialised field. – ANA

Aim is to make cardiac surgery safer