Melomed opens new hospital in Bellville

The hospital has 123 beds, including private wards with en suite bathrooms and flat-screen TVs, and four-bed general wards with electronic beds, and access to internet and telephone services at every bedside. A neonatal intensive care unit for premature and sickly babies as well as a baby nursery is also available.

Melomed Bellville's paediatric ward provides a play area to encourage children to recover sooner. The unit also caters for parents' needs, offering a waiting room with recliner chairs.

The hospital's radiology department (Messrs Morton and Partners) is a digital and electronic unit. Digital scans are captured directly onto the computer database and can be accessed immediately by specialists in their rooms, or at the patient's bedside. This process has a considerable environmental advantage because it cuts out the washing of film, thus saving water, and reduces toxic waste (the chemicals used to produce film). Melomed Bellville has embraced paperless processes, with medical staff now able to access all pathology and radiology records, test results and reports from wherever they are in the building.

More than 30 specialists, ranging from paediatricians to cardiac surgeons, have their consulting rooms at Bellville Melomed, and a pathology laboratory (Pathcare) is available for blood and other tests. A 24-hour trauma unit, an 11-bed intensive care unit (ICU) and four theatres are equipped with medical technology.