A new collaboration to help ease the stress on both parents and children was launched at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital this week.
A new paediatric surgery outpatient clinic will be built at the hospital, and will include a parental sleep-over facility, a first for the hospital.
The initiative, made possible by the Gauteng department of health, global healthcare company GlaxoSmithKline and Surgeons for Little Lives – a local nonprofit organisation focused on saving the lives of sick children – will build the R20 million clinic, which is aimed at improving the care delivered to children and offering patients access to well-rounded health services.
“This facility will not only benefit Gauteng citizens, but the entire country as the hospital gets referrals across the nation. We are thrilled that the new paediatric surgery outpatient clinic will expand our ability to improve our duty of care and the number of patients treated,” said Gauteng Health MEC Qedani Mahlangu.
“Many parents work or live some distance from the hospital, and the new support and facilities will allow parents to sleep over and provide important relief from parental concern, simultaneously decreasing the child’s anxiety, while also alleviating the day-to-day work load of nursing staff,” said Professor Jerome Loveland, academic head of paediatric surgery at Surgeons for Little Lives.
Omphile Kole, a 21-year-old parent from North West, said she was thrilled about the plan to build a new clinic as it would allow her to stay with her four-month-old child.
Kole, who arrived at the hospital earlier this week, said she could not breastfeed her daughter due to her illness, but she could now because the infant had been operated on.
“Things are better now. I couldn’t suckle my child and they wanted me to stay for five days to see if I should stay or go home,” Kole said.
The hospital had made provision for Kole and other mothers who came from far away to stay on the premises with their children.
The two-level clinic is designed to support 2 000 outpatients and 300 inpatients a month, while also providing a sleep-over facility for caregivers.
Families will be able to use the laundry, ablution facilities and kitchen amenities to contribute towards the care of their children, while also providing additional support for the nurses.