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Partnership builds hope for kids

18 Dec 2017

In 2015, the paediatric surgical outpatient department facilities at Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital were not conducive to delivering optimal care to its little patients, with consultation and counselling, investigations and procedures restricted by the space and amenities available. There was also no space for parents that needed to overnight while their children were in hospital.

Photo: Surgeons for Little Lives

So, Professor Jerome Loveland, a paediatric surgeon working between Mediclinic Sandton and and the teaching hospital made a plan. He approached Mediclinic to assist with the technical aspects of designing and building a new clinic.

To fund the project, Loveland launched the non-profit organisation, Surgeons for Little Lives, to raise sufficient funds to improve the level of care being provided in state paediatric surgical wards to world class standards.

Kobus Jonck and the infrastructure team from Mediclinic Corporate Office, together with Graceland Architects and TMS Quantity surveyors, drew up plans and worked out the projected costings for the project. With this information, Loveland began raising the necessary donations to support the construction. A little more than two and a half years later, the clinic has opened its doors and the children of the hospital are beginning to reap the benefits.

But this story does not end there. It continues with the next step in Loveland and Surgeons for Little Lives’ dream – a lactation unit that will include space for moms to breastfeed as well as a milk bank to store this essential milk for babies within the neonatal unit. Mediclinic has already provided a concept designs,and, the fundraising efforts for this development are well underway. The project management fee attached to the lactation centre project is expected to reach more than R900,000.

Read the full story here.