Focusing on the best and safest patient care
NETCARE’S commitment to providing quality private healthcare to the people of the Western Cape is evidenced by the company’s continued investment into its hospitals in the province.
Craig Murphy, regional director of the Netcare hospital division’s coastal region, says Netcare is focused on achieving best clinical patient outcomes, best patient experience, cost-effective care, as well as staff training and support.
Testament to this is Netcare winning the prestigious, national 2016/17 Ask Afrika Orange Index Award for service excellence in the private hospital industry. Netcare also achieved overall 6th place out of 135 companies in 33 industries – the first time that a private hospital ranked in the top 10.
“On-going expansion and upgrading of our facilities to incorporate cutting-edge, life-saving technology as well as introducing new services to meet growing demand, have contributed to building Netcare Western Cape hospitals’ reputation for excellence in healthcare,” says Murphy.
“For example, since started as a small community-based facility in 2002, it has almost doubled in size, capacity, facilities and services, and today offers a range of highly specialised medical services including cardiology procedures and cardiothoracic surgery, lives on at the hospital, with specialists having introduced a number of significant advances in the treatment of arrhythmias and other life-threatening cardiac conditions into South Africa.
Netcare Christiaan Barnard Hospital is not only highly regarded for its established paediatric cardiac programme, which includes paediatric heart transplants, and for its adult heart transplant surgery but was also the first facility in South Africa where an artificial heart – known as a Berlin heart – was implanted into a patient with heart failure. Another procedure performed at the hospital to restore a patient’s blood flow while they await a transplant is the implantation of the HeartWare Ventricular Assist System (HVAD). The hospital also has a longstanding renal transplant programme.
The hospital is also a global leader in the treatment of heart rhythm disturbances or arrhythmias, and was the first facility in the southern hemisphere to use the SENSei robotic catheter system to ablate ‘short circuits’ in order to return the heart’s rhythm to normal and reduce the need for treatments such as pacemakers and drugs.
One of the other cutting edge systems at the hospital is the da Vinci robotic system, which is regarded as the gold standard internationally for the treatment of localised prostate cancer, and has also been used for treating bladder and kidney cancers.
has, in the past year, introduced a number of new clinical services which not only benefit the community in the immediate vicinity but also those along the West Coast. During 2016, a state-of-the-art new hybrid cardiac catheterisation laboratory and hybrid endovascular laboratory opened as part of the hospital’s cardiovascular centre, which offers a full range of 24-hour cardiovascular services to the community. These include catheter-based procedures, coronary bypass and minimally invasive keyhole heart valve replacement surgery.
Netcare Blaauwberg Hospital was the first private hospital in South Africa where radial angioplasty was performed. It involves procedures being undertaken through the wrist artery rather than through the groin in appropriate patients.
The hospital is also well-known for its neonatal care, especially its successes in providing highly specialised care for microprem babies. It is furthermore one of only three private healthcare facilities in the Western Cape to have been awarded Mother and Baby Friendly Initiative (MBFI) status by the Department of Health, after an assessment in accordance with set criteria outlined in a global assessment tool.
is located at Groote Schuur Hospital. The hospital offers patients a comprehensive range of highly specialised services, from an integrated digestive diseases centre and a specialised orthopaedic surgery centre known as OrthoUCT, to heart, liver and kidney transplants including a specialised HIV to HIV transplant programme.
Other specialised services include pain management, cardiology, haematology, neurology, neurosurgery and oncology. There are, furthermore, breast cancer, diabetes, thyroid, infertility, uterine fibroid treatment and other specialised clinics at the hospital. A number of specialists practising at UCT Private Academic Hospital are involved in training and research through the University of Cape Town, contributing to the advancement of academic medicine in South Africa. Advanced treatments are offered at
interventional centre. The centre was the first in South Africa to establish a sophisticated interventional theatre equipped with state-of-the-art stereotactic image guided technology, linked to MRI and CT scanning equipment which enables scanning during surgical treatment.
This technology is used for high precision treatment of small lesions either in the brain or other parts of the body.
Other specialised services at Netcare N1 City Hospital include bariatric surgery and comprehensive cardiology and cardiothoracic services. A new cardiac catheterisation laboratory was recently opened at the hospital.
which became part of the Netcare Group in 2014, serves the Witzenberg community.
In addition to general practitioners at the hospital, a number of specialists consult there on a sessional basis, and an ear, nose and throat (ENT) specialist recently became the first full-time specialist at the facility. The facility incorporates a 24-hour emergency department, a general ward, maternity, paediatric, high care and sub-acute units, x-ray and pathology services and a pharmacy.
According to Murphy, creating the right infrastructure – both in terms of technology and professional nursing services – attracts highly skilled medical practitioners to Netcare hospitals, which ultimately means that patients will reap the benefit.
“Care is our core value at Netcare, and patient centric care lies at the heart of our nursing philosophy,” he explains.
“Equally important is a continuous focus on clinical quality improvements. There are a considerable number of well-established programmes in place in our hospitals, all of which are aligned to international best practice to support and help optimise patients’ medical treatment,” concludes Murphy.