Cape Town – Home Affairs Deputy Minister Fatima Chohan has called on South Africans to adopt a Newlands children’s orthopaedic hospital in order for the health care facilities to keep its doors open to children.
The Deputy Minister said this when she spent her day at the Maitland Cottage Children’s Orthopaedic Hospital as part of nationwide commemorations of the Nelson Mandela International Day.
The children’s hospital, which is one of the only two specialist institutions of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere, has, despite receiving government funding, been struggling to cope with day-to-day operational costs.
“Children of course were very close to Madiba’s heart and it is in that spirit that we chose to come here today to ensure that we highlight the good work that has been done in the specialist hospital.
“You have heard about the hospital, the kind of things that they do; it is essentially a specialist hospital for children and this is the only hospital of its kind apart from another one in Australia in the Southern Hemisphere.
“As such, they are constantly in need of funding. The equipment that you see, some of the kids having braces, prosthesis, those things cost a huge amount of money.
“And that it is located in the heart of Newlands; that is also very important because this is presumably a very affluent community but what we are here to do is to highlight their plight, highlight their needs and hopefully, because South Africans are very generous, hopefully the community are so generous, they will adopt this institution and they will make it part of their list of things to really give back to society,” she said.
The hospital offers surgery, care and rehabilitation of children with physical disabilities.
It has a fully equipped operating theatre in which specialists perform orthopaedic surgery and provide a training platform for post graduate students from the University of Cape Town.
The hospital specialises in the medical and surgical treatment of children with physical disability due to disease or accident.
This includes those with bone inflammation or infection and Acute Osteomyelitis as a result of malnutrition often due to less than ideal living conditions directly related to impoverishment, amongst others.
When the Minister arrived at the hospital, she interacted with child patients, from those that have physical disabilities to those with broken bones, like Keanu Myburgh, 6, who was recovering well after being run over by a car.
According to his mom Elmarie Myburgh, the accident left Keanu with a broken leg, broken ribs, broken jaw and head injuries.
Julie Scott, the hospital’s chairperson, said the 85-bed hospital is in desperate need of a funder.
“We need a lot of support because we are very desperate for funds because we are running at about R1.7 million short per annum and those funds have to be raised by the hospital.
“So we do rely on donations but what we need is to find an ongoing partnership with somebody that is going to give us money because we need finance to run the hospital.
“The gist is to get the community to adopt this hospital as their local organisation. It is right on their door step and that is one of the major things we want to do,” she said. – SAnews.gov.za
