Cancer care ward to move
Decision follows multimillion-rand upgrade at Mercantile Hospital
THE well-known Cedar Ward at Life St George’s Hospital will become a surgical ward in July, with palliative care and other medical care for cancer patients being moved to Mercantile Hospital.
These services were previously provided at Cedar Ward.
Life Healthcare regional manager Bruce Janssens said there had been a 44% increase in demand for oncology services year on year in the metro’s private hospitals.
He said he was confident that given the multimillion-rand upgrade of the hospital, they were able to offer services at Mercantile that were on a par with those at Life St George’s and Netcare Greenacres.
Janssens said while security in the Mercantile vicinity was a concern, they were engaging with the municipality over safety issues through the building’s landlord.
The hospital is up the road from a taxi rank and close to areas that are known, at times, for gang activity.
“We haven’t had any problems at the hospital,” Janssens said. “It is no different from the crime [in the vicinity] of St George’s Hospital.”
Hospital manager Pat Lubobo said while the traffic congestion around Mercantile was bad at around 4pm, it was fairly quiet at night.
She said they had good security around the hospital and there had only been one vehicle break-in.
Nursing manager Lynette Myburgh, who moved from St George’s Hospital to Mercantile, said she had not had any security issues.
With the 44% increase in demand for oncology services in Nelson Mandela Bay’s private hospitals, Janssens said he considered it very important that they were now able to bring a much-needed oncology service to the community that Mercantile served.
He said patients who had to take three buses or multiple taxis to get to Life St George’s would be able to access Life Mercantile in a single public transport trip.
The ward would have 10 beds and was expected to open in July.
Janssens said Life St George’s would continue to provide chemotherapy to its patients in the Dick Williamson Oncology Ward.
“Through our expansion and upgrade projects at Life Mercantile Hospital, we are excited to have created capacity to expand the service offerings at the hospital to include renal dialysis and now oncology care,” he said.
“Oncology is a new unit at Life Mercantile Hospital and will complement the care that is already being offered at Life St George’s Hospital.
“Our vision is to ensure that we provide quality healthcare to all, bringing our service offerings to the communities that we serve, and we believe this is another step towards achieving this vision.”
Lubobo said the city’s oncologists had visited the proposed site for the new unit earlier this week.
Janssens said over the past few years they had invested R43.6-million in further developing and upgrading Life Mercantile.
The latest phase of development included the expansion of the intensive care unit, a complete revamp of the theatre and an upgrade to the Surgical C Ward.
In a letter addressed to oncologists in Port Elizabeth, Life St George’s has stated it has continuous capacity problems.
According to the letter, senior nurses from Cedar Ward will be engaged to train staff for the new ward.
The letter stated that from July 1 cancer patients needing hydration, palliative care or pain management would be admitted to the new unit at Life Mercantile.